Spotlight on Geopolitics

EU: Dark Clouds on Eurozone Sky

August 3, 2015

In Wolfgang Schaeuble’s Germano-centric EU, no institution is more important – apart from his Politburo-like Eurogroup and the Office of the Chancellor – than his Ministry’s Council of Economic Advisers. The most influential adviser among them is Professor Hans-Werner Sinn from Munich, a Christian missionary-manqué turned tele-economist. Like any good German, Professor Sinn has but… » read more

Posted by Florian Pantazi

E.U., Economy & Euro, English, EU Priorities and Opinion, Security

, E.U., economics, euro, Greece

EU: Undoing Germany’s “Reluctant” Hegemony

July 30, 2015

To those in the know, the Italian peninsula was not only the cradle of the Roman Empire or Rome the centre of the Catholic faithful, but also the birthplace of capitalism and of countless statecraft innovations and institutions still widely used around the world today. During the middle ages, the Italian city-states thus discovered and… » read more

Posted by Florian Pantazi

E.U., Economy & Euro, English, EU Priorities and Opinion, External Relations, Security

, E.U., euro, France

EU: what are Latin countries waiting for ?

July 23, 2015

Very few American experts grasp the motivations behind the construction of the European Union. As a result, American specialized literature abounds with misguided comparisons, such as that between the US Civil War from the 19th century and today’s tense situation between Europe’s North and South. Yes, the EEC was initially formed in 1957 to prevent… » read more

Posted by Florian Pantazi

E.U., Economy & Euro, External Relations

, E.U., euro, France, USA

EU: Grexit or Dexit ?

July 19, 2015

Some seventeen centuries ago, emperor Diocletian realized that the Roman empire had grown too big and too diverse to be ruled from a single centre. Diocletian therefore decided to split it in two, the west ruled from Rome by a fellow army officer and the east controlled by himself. The east-west division became more or… » read more

Posted by Florian Pantazi

E.U., Economy & Euro, EU Priorities and Opinion, External Relations

, E.U., France, NATO

My views on Grexit

July 13, 2015

With protracted negotiations still going on in Brussels, I would like to provide my readers with an opinion I have expressed in February this year, in an email exchange with my younger Blogactiv colleague Dimitri Rapidis from Athens. I still consider today that the total absence of a Plan B has severely weakened the position… » read more

Posted by Florian Pantazi

E.U., Economy & Euro, EU Priorities and Opinion, External Relations

, E.U., euro, Greece

SCO’s Landmark Ufa Summit

July 11, 2015

On the 9th and 10th of July 2015, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has held a landmark summit in Ufa (Russia), its 15th to date. Ufa has simultaneously hosted the BRICS summit, which was meant to further strengthen economic ties between its five emerging economic powers. Founded in 2001 by Russia, China and four Central… » read more

Posted by Florian Pantazi

Energy Supply, External Relations

, Asia, Central Asia, China, India, Pakistan, Russia, USA

Romania’s crisis in geopolitical context

June 16, 2015

Last week Romania was the scene of a bizarre and, luckily, aborted judicial coup d’état. This at least is what the efforts of the new Romanian president to depose the country’s premier have been labelled by veteran Bucharest journalists, such as Ion Cristoiu and Cornel Nistorescu. Truth be told, the anti-corruption drive initiated by former… » read more

Posted by Florian Pantazi

External Relations

, E.U., Romania

An electoral victory of sorts for England

May 13, 2015

Last week’s electoral win by the Conservative party has marked the Labour party’s fall from political grace in Britain. The victory was obtained through political manipulation (as opposed to political leadership) and electoral wizardry first tested in the land down under. Alas, Britain does not have Australia’s natural wealth, nor China as a huge, close-by… » read more

Posted by Florian Pantazi

English, EU Priorities and Opinion, External Relations

, E.U., UK, USA

Romania’s SCO alternative to NATO

April 7, 2015

The President of the European Commission, Mr. Jean-Claude Juncker, has recently proposed the creation of a common army in charge of defending the EU in case of external aggression. Unfortunately, chances for the success of such a project are rather slim. Governments of member states have jealously guarded their prerogatives of framing foreign policy and… » read more

Posted by Florian Pantazi

External Relations

, China, E.U., Romania, Russia, USA

A landmark decision for Europe

March 18, 2015

Over the past fifty years or so geopolitics has not very often come to have a big influence over major economic decisions in the Western world. Case in point, as President Obama’s speeches have proved it over and over in recent years, American officials are known to dislike geopolitics quite a lot. On the other… » read more

Posted by Florian Pantazi

External Relations

, China, E.U., USA

Spotlight on Geopolitics

Florian Pantazi is an historian and geopolitical consultant.

Austerity fuels the spread of poverty March 3, 2015
At the end of February, Caritas International has released its 2015 Report on poverty within the European Union. According to its authors, six years of enforced budgetary authority have gravely affected 125 million EU citizens who are now forced to live under the poverty thresholds of their respective countries.The worst-hit countries are EU members such […]
Florian Pantazi
Eugène Buret on Poverty October 22, 2014
One hundred and eighty years ago (1834) , the newly-founded Academy for Moral and Political Sciences in Paris organized a competition for the best research paper on the causes and various manifestations of poverty in Europe. The best research paper on the subject, which won its author a 2,500 francs prize offered by baron Félix […]
Florian Pantazi
Le pape François et "l'économie des retombées" May 18, 2014
L'Eglise romano-catholique a toujours été concernée avec les aides pour les pauvres, leur éducation et leur bien-être. Les derniers trente ans, toutefois, la plus puissante église chrétienne du monde a pris congé de ce devoir millénaire, sous les pontificats des papes Jean Paul II et Benoît XVI. Pendant cette période, le problème de la pauvreté […]
Florian Pantazi

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