Atlantic Sentinel

Category: List

  • Top Stories of 2022

    Joe Biden got more done than many anticipated at the beginning of the year. The consequences of Germany’s and the Netherlands’ shortsighted energy policies became obvious with the Russian war in Ukraine. Right-wing Spain waged lawfare against the left-wing government of Pedro Sánchez and its Catalan allies. Farmers’ protests broke out in the Netherlands. Emmanuel Macron lost his parliamentary majority in France. Social democrats lost the election in Italy. Democrats only half-won the election in the United States because Republicans are worse, but the largest group of Americans is disappointed in both parties.

    Here are the best Atlantic Sentinel stories of 2022. (more…)

  • Recommended Reading on the Russo-Ukrainian War

    Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has entered its fourth week. Russian forces have made limited headway, according to Western assessments. Russia has failed to take major Ukrainian cities and is instead shelling them from a distance, causing enormous destruction to property and unknown casualties.

    In Mariupol alone, which has been surrounded by Russians attacking from Crimea in the west and the Russian puppet republic of Donetsk in the north, officials report 2,500 dead.

    More than three million Ukrainians, out of 44 million, have left the country, according to the UN. Almost two million fled to Poland.

    Chernihiv, close to the border with Belarus, has been without electricity, heat and water for almost three weeks. Suburbs of Kiev were cut off from heat and water this week.

    Russian forces have progressed farthest in the agricultural Kherson Oblast in the south, reaching the east bank of the Dnieper River that cuts Ukraine in half.

    Here are the most insightful takes on the war I’ve read this week. Click here for my previous recommendations. (more…)

  • Recommended Reading on the Russo-Ukrainian War

    Vladimir Putin dramatically escalated his war in Ukraine a week ago, attacking the country’s major cities Kharkiv and Kiev and expanding Russian control of Ukraine’s Black Sea coast out of Crimea.

    So far the least successful Russian offensive has been in the Donbas. Possibly because the Ukrainian soldiers there are its most battle-hardened. Or maybe the Russian attack from the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk was only meant to pin those Ukrainian forces down.

    Russian troops have entered the northern suburbs of Kiev, streaming down from Belarus. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and his government remain in the city, once home to three million.

    The United Nations estimates that 660,000 Ukrainians have fled. More than half made their way to Poland. The Polish government says 50,000 Ukrainians are arriving every day. Hungary has taken 90,000 refugees. Hundreds thousands more are internally displaced.

    The European Union has banned Russian flights and state media, and in an historic first is providing €500 million worth of weapons to Ukraine. Large Western companies, including automaker Daimler and the oil and gas giant Shell, are pulling out of Russia.

    I haven’t been writing daily analyses of the war, because there are others who do that much better. Here are the sources I recommend. (more…)

  • Top Stories of 2021

    2021 wasn’t all bad. Joe Biden became president of the United States. Israel and Italy got better governments. Spain took a step in the right direction for Catalonia — but a step in the wrong direction on labor policy. Political fragmentation didn’t weaken Germany. The Netherlands scored a little-noticed antitrust victory in Brussels.

    Here are the best Atlantic Sentinel stories of the year. (more…)

  • Top Stories of 2020

    At least 2020 ended well.

    Donald Trump lost reelection. The European Union agreed an historic €750 billion coronavirus recovery fund in addition to €1.1 trillion in long-term spending that includes funding for a European Green Deal. Britain and the EU negotiated a post-Brexit trade agreement at the last minute. COVID-19 vaccines were developed in record pace that should allow a return to normalcy in the new year.

    Before we close the book on this annus horribilis, a look back at our most important stories of 2020. (more…)

  • How Republicans Became the Party of Trump

    I don’t think I will ever get used to hearing once-sensible Republicans singing Donald Trump’s praises.

    Four years ago, the likes of Nikki Haley, Rand Paul, Tim Scott and Scott Walker knew that Trump was a bully without ideas; a would-be strongman with an unhealthy admiration for Vladimir Putin; a failed tycoon who didn’t grasp the basic principles of economics; and a thrice-married philanderer who had clearly never read a Bible.

    Four years later, with the economy in free fall, America’s reputation in tatters, multiple former Trump campaign officials in prison and 180,000 Americans dead as a result of coronavirus, they’re telling the Republican National Convention that Trump is the only thing standing between them and the abyss.

    How did this happen? (more…)

  • Top Stories of 2019

    As we close out 2019, the Atlantic Sentinel celebrates ten years online. For the new year, I have sharpened the site’s look, taking advantage of coding that is now supported by all major and recent browsers to create an even more fluid layout.

    If I overlooked any formatting errors, please let me know!

    Looking back on the year, it’s hard to escape the feeling that the center cannot hold — from a worsening separatist crisis in Catalonia to stagnation in Italy to political stalemate in Israel to political polarization in the United States.

    Let’s hope 2020 gives us better news. Certainly the elections in America will keep us busy. Expect plenty of analysis and opinion from us about the Democratic primaries in the first half of the year and of the general election in the autumn.

    But first, our best stories of 2019. (more…)

  • Top Stories of 2018

    As this year draws to a close, so does Britain’s membership of the EU. A “hard” Brexit looks likely, unless politicians belatedly recognize that the deal Theresa May has negotiated is the best on offer.

    In continental Europe, Emmanuel Macron is weakened at home and struggling to win support for ambitious EU reforms in Brussels. The migration crisis has gone, but the political center still needs to come up with better policies.

    On both sides of the Atlantic, center-left parties must decide whether to woo working-class voters or side with the socially progressive middle class. The lesson from Europe is that either strategy can work — but social democrats need to pick a side.

    Brazil has elected its own version of Donald Trump. The fear is that Jair Bolsonaro will face even less resistance from institutions than the American caudillo. (more…)

  • Trust in Institutions: Atlantic Sentinel Reading List

    After writing yesterday’s editorial, about Republican attacks on the American FBI, it occurred to me we’ve published more than a few stories about declining trust in institutions and what this means for Western democracy. So I’ve added a tag, trust in institutions, to help you find those stories more easily.

    Here is my selection of the best ones.

  • Top Stories of 2017

    2017 was marked by the aftermath of the political upsets of 2016: Brexit got started, Donald Trump was sworn in as president and “globalists” were left wondering where it had all gone wrong.

    The intellectual and political debate that ensued clarified things. My own conclusion: we are living through the latest battle in the war between Enlightenment universalism and Romantic nationalism. The politics and the policies have changed, but the underlying tension — between liberty and community, between opportunity and equality, between city and country — is the same it has been for centuries.

    Most of our top stories from 2017, from Trump’s takeover of the Republican Party to the political realignment in France, have to do with this tension in one way or another.

    Here is an overview. (more…)

  • Catalan Election Day Live Blog and Reading List

    On Thursday, the Atlantic Sentinel will be providing live analysis and commentary of the election in Catalonia.

    In addition to updating you on the results, our focus will be on analysis and opinion. We’ll be reading the local, European and international coverage of the election and share (and where necessary translate) interesting takes for you.

    I hope you’ll join us! We’ll kick off around noon Central European Time. (more…)

  • German Election Day Live Blog and Reading List

    On Sunday, the Atlantic Sentinel will provide live analysis and commentary of the election in Germany.

    Our focus will be on opinion. We won’t be competing with big-name outlets to bring you the latest news, although we will of course report the most important results.

    We’ll be reading German, European and international coverage of the election and share (and where necessary translate) interesting takes. And we’ll have our own team of contributors to give you their perspective.

    I hope you’ll join us! We’ll kick off around 3 in the afternoon Central European Time. (more…)

  • The European Union at Sixty Reading List

    Europe celebrates the sixtieth anniversary of the Treaty of Rome on Saturday, which created the European Economic Community that has since morphed into the EU.

    It’s a day to appreciate what has been achieved: sixty years of peace and comity between the peoples of Europe.

    But it’s also a day to look to the future. Europe, after all, is not done. Nor can European unification be taken for granted. Britain is leaving. For the first time in its history, the EU has a president in Washington who doesn’t support it. And it must cope with a president in Moscow who actively seeks to undermine the European project.

    The Atlantic Sentinel has selected several stories from its archive to help readers understand where the EU is at — and where it is going. (more…)

  • Top Stories of 2016

    2016 was an unsettling year. From Britain’s decision to leave the European Union to the election of Donald Trump in America, it sometimes felt as though the world was balancing on the precipice of something new and possibly quite dangerous.

    There was good news. Barack Obama normalized American relations with Cuba. Colombia made peace with the FARC. Spain got a government after managing without one for almost all of 2016.

    At the Atlantic Sentinel, we welcomed new writers, including Matt Finucane from the United Kingdom, András Tóth-Czifra, who specializes in post-Soviet Europe, and Ryan Bohl, whose weekly Geopolitics Made Super column we republish.

    We did more live blogs, including for the Brexit referendum and its political aftermath as well as the coup attempt in Turkey in July.

    We sharpened our focus on the Atlantic area and transatlantic relations, which is our specialty. Our mission from the start has been to help American readers make sense of European politics and vice versa. It looks like we’ll have our work cut out for us in that regard next year.

    Before we welcome 2017, here is a look back at our top stories from 2016. (more…)