The Spring Issue
From the Editor
18 Cover story A new Middle East Iran and its proxies are weak. Can Saudi Arabia seize its moment? Lina Khatib
Israel must not risk annexing millions of Palestinians Yair Golan The struggle to unite Syria’s armed factions into a new army Rahaf Aldoughli
Features 12 Trump’s first 50 days Chatham House experts digest the the US president’s whirlwind start
16 Interview: Kajsa Ollongren The former Netherlands defence minister on how Europe might wean itself off US military support
30 UK resilience Nordic lessons in how to prepare for the worst
Robin Potter
33 Climate change Britain should collaborate with China to cut greenhouse emissions
Chris Aylett
34 Japan’s war re-enactors Glorifying an imperial past 80 years after Hiroshima Christopher Bobyn
40 Korea
Kim Jong Un delights in Seoul crisis
Edward Howell
41 The Conversation Alex Krasodomski and Carl Miller on Europe and America’s digital decoupling
43 Artificial intelligence Can DeepSeek end US dominance?
Chris Stokel-Walker 45 Pandemic treaty How to keep health equity alive
Ebere Okereke 46 Argentina ‘Chainsaw economics’ won’t cut it
Monica de Bolle 48 Ukraine’s diaspora Should they stay away or return?
Olga Tokariuk
Regulars 5 The Briefing Donald Tusk’s test; Nigerian corruption; Energy infrastructure
50 Postcard from Greenland Forging our path to independence
Aka Hansen 53 CIA Book Club Smuggled texts that outfoxed KGB
Charlie English 56 Book reviews From diplomacy to far-right terror
58 The debrief ‘Working in Ukraine shaped me’
Samir Puri
Welcome to the spring issue of The World Today.
Has there been a first 50 days in power like the start of Donald Trump’s second presidency? We invited five Chatham House programme heads to analyse the dizzying barrage of executive orders and policy pronouncements that have upended the international order. On Trump’s Ukraine interventions, former Dutch defence minister (and Chatham House associate fellow) Kajsa Ollongren says his outreach to Russia is ‘extremely risky’ for European security. Their assessments are just one part of the institute’s response to Trump 2.0 – be sure to visit the Chatham House website for more expert analysis of this epochal moment in global affairs.
The Middle East , where Trump has also intervened, has experienced a tumultuous 17 months since the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel. In our cover package, Lina Khatib delves into the strategic opportunity that Iran’s relative weakness presents Saudi Arabia, Yossi Mekelberg speaks to Israeli opposition leader Yair Golan about alternative directions for the country, and Rahaf Aldoughli asks if Syria’s new leadership will be able to unite the country’s armed factions.
Three years after Russia’s fullscale invasion of Ukraine, its effects remain profound. Olga Tokariuk talks to Ukrainian refugees torn between returning home and staying put in host countries. Developing societal resilience to hybrid threats has become an urgent issue – Robin Potter asks what Britain can learn from the Nordic countries.
Elsewhere, Alex Krasodomski and Carl Miller discuss the possible decoupling of Europe and the US over socialmedia regulation. Chris Aylett urges the British government to collaborate with China on emissions-reduction policy. And there’s much more ... Mike Higgins Mhiggins@chathamhouse.org The World Today is also at www.theworldtoday.org, X, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Bluesky
