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Monday Commentary
NATO in The Hague: a summit like no other
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NATO in The Hague: a summit like no other

23 June 2025
NATO summits are usually orderly affairs, prepared well in advance, and an opportunity for the partners in the military alliance to show unity and resolve. The forthcoming Nato Summit in The Hague, on Tuesday and Wednesday, 24 and 25 June is different. As the BBC put it, there will be 32 leaders from Europe and North America present, but “only one man matters  - NATO's summit is all about Trump”. With three wars on its borders, NATO needed a good summit in The Hague. Whilst managing Mr Trump, the 31 other leaders in The Hague need to think of the future.
Dennis Sammut
Editor's choice
Monday Commentary
The Georgians are still waiting for the man on the white horse!
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The Georgians are still waiting for the man on the white horse!

16 June 2025
The political crises in Georgia that started after disputed parliamentary elections at the end of last year, shows no sign of easing. The government, formed by the ruling Georgian Dream party, appears exhausted. Its strategy of wearing out the opposition failed. It is now increasingly resorting to repression. Many opposition activists have been arrested, and the Government keeps introducing laws and administrative measures that are meant to tighten its control of the country, but in practice increase the resolve of its opponents. The Georgian Dream government is at a dead end.
Dennis Sammut
Editor's choice
Monday Commentary
The world needs a new narrative
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The world needs a new narrative

9 June 2025
A wave of right-wing sentiment is gripping the world, not least in Europe where right-wing parties that until yesterday were considered to be on the fringe of the political spectrum, are now knocking on the doors of government, if they are not in government already. It is no longer possible to dismiss this movement, nor to ignore it. The question needs to be asked why people are flocking to these parties. Migration is often cited as a reason, but whilst a factor, on its own this is not an adequate explanation. Thousands of people, who until recently voted for the centre-left, or centre-right parties – in Europe usually associated with Social Democrats and Christian Democrats – are now supporting parties, some of who have a pedigree in fascism and nazism. Yet many who vote for far-right and populist parties are neither fascists nor nazis. They are mostly decent working people, and their families, who are disillusioned by the political class, often described as the political elite, and are in desperation seeking something different.
Dennis Sammut
Editor's choice
Monday Commentary
The 21st century is Asia’s moment, but for many Asian countries this moment is full of perils
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The 21st century is Asia’s moment, but for many Asian countries this moment is full of perils

2 June 2025
China wants to be first in the world, but its first stop is Asia. While the rest of the world debates and sometimes agonises over whether and how to engage with China, Asian countries have no choice but to engage. And in most cases, they will have to do so on China's terms. Most countries have to play a balancing game, but China is taking no chances. Chinese leader Xi Jinping's recent trip to Southeast Asia in April was a case in point. Another was the China-GCC-ASEAN summit in Kuala Lumpur on 28 May, attended by Chinese Premier Li Qiang and the leaders of the six Gulf monarchies and the ten ASEAN countries.
Dennis Sammut
Editor's choice
Monday Commentary
The tragedy in Gaza will haunt the West for a long time to come
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The tragedy in Gaza will haunt the West for a long time to come

26 May 2025
In the last few days, the EU and the UK took the first public steps to censure Israel for its actions in Gaza. It was done ever so gently that one could not be blamed for not noticing, but politically it was a seismic step taken after much consideration and soul-searching, and it will have long-term implications. But for many, it is too little, too late. Gaza is a tragedy that the West has been unable to prevent. It will haunt the West, particularly Europe for a long time to come.
Dennis Sammut
Editor's choice
Monday Commentary
Controlling the narrative
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Controlling the narrative

19 May 2025
Donald Trump’s second presidency in the United States has been marked by a series of outrageous statements and actions that have gripped world attention. Some, like the demand that Canada becomes the 51st state, will never happen, others, like the threat to invade Greenland, are unlikely to happen and, on some, President Trump will change his mind, as he often does. Regardless, they provide a distraction to other acts that, whilst equally outrageous, received less attention, even if they form part of Trump’s core strategy. In this category, one can put the dismissal of Carla Hayden as the Librarian of Congress and Colleen Shogan as Archivist of the United States. Their replacement with Trump loyalists is a signal of Trump’s determination to control the narrative about his presidency, define what is truth and what is a lie, and make sure future generations will depend on a doctored history.
Dennis Sammut
Editor's choice
Monday Commentary
New Pope, new Chancellor, same old Trump
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New Pope, new Chancellor, same old Trump

12 May 2025
The Catholic Church has a new leader. Robert Prevost was not discussed by the media before being announced as the new Pope on Friday. He will follow the Church’s mantra, that has served it well over two thousand years, to be as flexible as necessary and as rigid as possible Europe has fresh energy in the person of the new German chancellor, Friedrich Merz. Despite the wobbly start in the German Parliament, Merz in the four days after his swearing-in met key European leaders, and laid the basis for his Chancellorship. Meanwhile, Donald Trump statements continue to hanker for the past. His call for the re-opening of the prison on Alcatraz is a case in point. Trump marks the end of the “American era”. The US will remain a rich and powerful country, but its global role will be much diminished.
Dennis Sammut
Editor's choice
Monday Commentary
For Trump the problem is not Ukraine, it is China
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For Trump the problem is not Ukraine, it is China

5 May 2025
Many of us have watched with incredulity as US President Donald Trump sailed through his first one hundred days in office. Domestically, the period has been characterised by the biggest shake-up of the American Government in history based on an old Trumpian maxim, that Washington was a “swamp”, and one suspects also a wish to settle scores with an establishment that in the past had not hesitated in challenging the Trumpian reading of America and the world. On the international level, Trump focused in his first hundred days on Ukraine and tariffs. Certainly, there were plenty of other statements to fill the world headlines: Greenland, Panama Canal, Canada becoming the US 51st state, renaming the Gulf of Mexico, to name a few.
Dennis Sammut
Editor's choice
Monday Commentary
Is the Sahel Europe’s soft underbelly?
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Is the Sahel Europe’s soft underbelly?

28 April 2025
The Sahel region stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea and consists, according to the UN, of ten countries which sit, wholly or partly, within it: Senegal,  Gambia, Mauritania, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, Cameroon and Nigeria Other neighbouring countries however, such as Benin, Togo Sudan and Central African Republic, due to their proximity, and to the fact that they increasingly share the same problems, are often included when the Sahel is discussed.
Dennis Sammut