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GEOPOLITICAL NEWS - Atlantic Council publishes landmark strategy via PR Channel - Gibraltar (Remote) www.GEOPoliticalMatters,com Atlantic Council publishes landmark strategy paper on China’s global rise under Xi Jinping Former senior government official provides unprecedented insights into China’s internal politics and proposes US strategies for contending with China’s rise  The Atlantic Council published an extraordinary new strategy paper that offers the most insightful and rigorous examination to date of Chinese geopolitical strategy and what American strategy should look like in response. Written by a former senior government official with deep expertise and experience dealing with China, the strategy lays out a comprehensive approach, and the ways to execute it, in terms which will invite comparison with George Kennan’s historic 1946 Long Telegram on Soviet grand strategy.  The focus of the paper is China’s leader and his behaviour. “The single most important challenge fa...

Atlantic Council : Geopolitics complicates Ukraine’s vaccine quest Posted By PRChannel Team - Gibraltar (Remote) www.GEOPoliticalMatters.com In the global struggle for COVID vaccines, Ukraine has emerged as a marginalized borderland. As has happened so often throughout Ukrainian history, the country finds itself on the frontier between the European community of nations and the vast authoritarian empires of Eurasia. On one side are the EU member states, which have already ordered their vaccines and launched national inoculation campaigns. Except for a comparatively small Moderna contract, the vaccines in use throughout the European Union are virtually all EU-developed or manufactured. On the other side of the divide stand Russia and China. Both superpowers are pursuing predatory vaccine strategies that seek to convert global demand for vaccination into geopolitical advantage. Ukraine is the largest of the many non-aligned countries in the region that now find themselves scrambling to se...

ECFR - The Geopolitics of the Green Deal Posted By PRChannel Team - Gibraltar (Remote) www.GEOPoliticalMatters.com Google Indexed 280121 @ 08:35 How to manage the geopolitical aspects of the European Green Deal and lead climate change efforts globally? 3 February 2021, 14:00 – 17:00, CET Online, register here GUESTS Anne Bergenfelt, Senior Advisor, Cabinet of Josep Borrell Fontelles Mark Leonard, Director, ECFR Simone Tagliapietra, Research Fellow, Bruegel CHAIRED BY Guntram Wolff, Director, Bruegel Ask questions during the event through sli.do using the code #geopolitics This event will mark the launch of the eponymous paper co-written by Mark Leonard and Jeremy Shapiro of the European Council on Foreign Relations, as well as Jean Pisani Ferry, Simone Tagliapietra and Guntram Wolff of Bruegel. In the paper, the authors map out the geopolitical implications of the European Green Deal and lay out a foreign policy agenda to manage the geopolitical aspects of the European Green Deal and t...

Institute for Government: Heart of the Problem: The government’s weak centre Posted By PRChannel Team - Gibraltar (Remote) www.GEOPoliticalMatters.com The new report from the Institute for Government : "Heart of the Problem: The government’s weak centre! argues that No.10 and the Cabinet Office need more power to help prime ministers get things done – as this year has shown.  On their podcas t, the Institute explores exactly that point, joined by Nick Timothy, who worked in No10 as Theresa May’s chief of staff. He tells how he would scrap special advisers, and why, when he worked in the Home Office, his team looked down on Downing Street. Brexit is not yet done, and two new IfG events take a look at what 2021 means for the UK and the EU and for parliamentary scrutiny of their new relationship. On Wednesday they will give my annual lecture, talking about what an extraordinary year has told us about government and what it should do in the next 12 months. They´ll be joined in discus...

GEOPOLITICAL NEWS : WEF - Davos Agenda: What you need to know about Geopolitics Posted By PRChannel Team - Gibraltar (Remote) www.GEOPoliticalMatters.com The COVID-19 pandemic is a reminder of the need for international cooperation. To build back better and tackle the many health, economic, societal, environmental and technological challenges ahead, we need meaningful multilateral action, social justice and public-private partnership. From 25-29 January, the Davos Agenda will virtually convene world leaders to discuss these geopolitical challenges. Following the 2020 Annual Meeting in Davos, World Economic Forum President Børge Brende called for “another period of multilateral renewal” in order for the world to tackle the multitude of economic, environmental and technological risks ahead. “The ability to act in concert and with purpose within a tumultuous global environment won’t be easy, but it will be necessary,” he said. Within weeks, we would see more clearly just how true this was...

ECFR: The crisis of American power: How Europeans see Biden’s America Posted By PRChannel Team - Gibraltar (Remote) www.GEOPoliticalMatters.com Summary Most Europeans rejoiced at Joe Biden’s victory in the November US presidential election, but they do not think he can help America make a comeback as the pre-eminent global leader. Europeans’ attitudes towards the United States have undergone a massive change. Majorities in key member states now think the US political system is broken, and that Europe cannot just rely on the US to defend it. They evaluate the EU and/or their own countries’ systems much more positively than that of the US – and look to Berlin rather than Washington as the most important partner. There are geopolitical consequences to American weakness. A majority believe that China will be more powerful than the US within a decade and would want their country to stay neutral in a conflict between the two superpowers. Two-thirds of respondents thought the EU should develo...

GEOPOLITICAL NEWS : CYBER - Cyber crime peaked astronomically in 2020. Learnings and predictions for 2021. By Stephen Burke, Cyber Risk Aware CEO and Founder  www.GEOPoliticalMatters.com Nothing could have prepared us for 2020 - a year that demanded a swift and dramatic restructure of corporate operations in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.  Remote workforces were created overnight, even within industries who never had the experience of managing effective, remote working teams. With limited time and resources to prepare and support home working employees, a makeshift remote setup was thrust upon us. This, consequently, created an opportunity for massive cyber security breaches and a stream of cyber attacks, which can have a devastating impact on businesses when the cost of a data breach averaged between $184k and $715k for a medium-sized business in 2019. 2020 was an opportunistic year for cyber criminals, who took advantage of a time of uncertainty. In the UK, businesses ex...

Independent panel finds critical early failings in COVID-19 response Posted By GEO´ PR Channel Team - Gibraltar (Remote) www.GEOPoliticalMatters.com The global system for pandemic alert and response is “not fit for purpose”, highlighting the need for a new framework in the wake of COVID-19, experts appointed by the World Health Organization (WHO) said in an interim report presented on Tuesday.  The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response found critical elements to be “slow, cumbersome and indecisive” in an era when information about new disease outbreaks is being transmitted faster than countries can formally report on them. https://theindependentpanel.org/ “When there is a potential health threat, countries and the World Health Organization must further use the 21st century digital tools at their disposal to keep pace with news that spreads instantly on social media and infectious pathogens that spread rapidly through travel”, said Helen Clark, former Prime Minist...

GEOPOLITICAL NEWS : Virtual Event - Delivering net zero Posted By PR Channel Team - Gibraltar (Remote) www.GEOPoliticalMatters.com Wednesday 10 February 2021, 09:00 - 17:30 The Institute for Government is hosting a special international, one-day virtual conference looking at the route to net zero ahead of COP26, the global United Nations climate change summit being hosted in Glasgow in November this year. With the government committed to reducing the UK’s net emissions of greenhouse gases by 100% by 2050, the conference will explore the challenges in reaching this target identified in the Institute's report on net zero. Full Programme & Registration

GEOPOLITICAL NEWS - IRENA: World Energy Transition Day to Kick-Start Crucial Assembly Meeting Posted By PRChannel Team - Gibraltar (Remote) www.GEOPoliticalMatters.com Agency’s 11th Assembly brings almost 2000 participants including 70 Ministers together virtually to set the course for a year of critical energy discussions The International Renewable Energy Agency ’s (IRENA) Eleventh Assembly will get underway virtually from tomorrow (Monday) setting the course for a critical year of global commitments to low-carbon development. With the postponed COP26 set to take place later this year, 2021 is seen as an important moment for countries to raise climate mitigation ambition including renewable energy deployment, to align economic recovery efforts with the goals of the Paris Agreement. “The COVID-19 pandemic defined 2020,” said Francesco La Camera, IRENA Director-General. “However, as countries look to recover from the devastating impacts of the pandemic and build back in a way that is ...

ATLANTIC COUNCI: The promises and pitfalls of the post-COVID workplace Posted by PR Channel Management Team Gibraltar (Remote) www.GEOPoliticalMatters.com For many people, remote work has become a central part of their pandemic experience. But as the BBC chronicles, that freedom isn’t available to everybody. Outbreaks of COVID-19 infections have been attributed to inadequate sick-leave provisions for in-person workers in countries such as Canada and the United States, while employees worldwide—from garment workers in Asia to young people in Latin America and the Caribbean—are grappling with escalating unemployment rates.  For those fortunate enough to still have a job but without the luxury of doing it from home, new technology has stepped into the breach—perhaps foreshadowing how workplaces could be transformed when more people return to the office as the pandemic ebbs. In settings such as the BBC’s offices in the United Kingdom and CERN’s physics lab on the Swiss-French border, a...

COVID-19 and geopolitics – 5 lessons from past pandemics Harry Kretchmer Senior Writer, Formative Content via PR Channel  www.GEOPoliticalMatters.com COVID-19 is the latest in a long series of pandemics that have shaped the course of history and hold lessons for today. The 1918-19 Spanish flu is thought to have led to increased global cooperation around pandemic preparedness. The epidemic also led to an expanded role of the state in healthcare, which COVID-19 has also triggered. The Black Death of 1347-51 is thought to have stimulated major economic and technological changes. Pandemics throughout history show that the poorest suffer the most. Did yellow fever change the course of US history? Would global cooperation on diseases exist today without the flu pandemic of 1918-20? Will COVID-19 reorder our world too? While today’s pandemic is unique and the future is uncertain, the outbreaks of the past suggest ways we can respond now to achieve better outcomes tomorrow. With the geopol...

Leaked emails show UK more important to France than EU itself  By Iain Fraser - Geopolitical Journalist, Gibraltar (Remote)  www.GEOPoliticalMatters.com  French President Emmanuel Macron was briefed before taking office that France´s defence ties to the UK post Brexit) were crucial for the country and far more important than any integration into a proposed EU military alliance according to emails leaked from Macron´s inner sanctum.  Together with Britain, France is Europe’s leading collective military power. It is a nuclear power and a member of the United Nations Security Council. However, the last-minute post-Brexit deal reached on December 24 does not include any chapters on foreign policy or defence, leaving the door wide open for bilateral cooperation ... Read Full Story  Log In  |  Register

Key European Players gravely concerned about by Iran’s Uranium enrichment programme.  By David Matthews - Climate & Energy Correspondent Gibraltar (Remote) www.GEOPoliticalMatters.com  Several key European players including Germany, France and the newly Brexiled United Kingdom have collectively condemned Iran’s uranium enrichment program to 20% and pleaded with Tehran to reverse its ambitions.  They have told Iran that its programme will have a "serious negative effect" and wholly undermines commitment to preserve the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) Under the (JCPOA), the 2015 deal set out to curb Iran’s nuclear development in return for eased sanctions, however the country was permitted to reach enrichment levels of 3.67 percent a normal enrichment for industrial usage. Tehran first breached this restriction in 2018 after US President Donald Trump pulled out of the agreement, and last week UN inspectors confirmed that Iran had begun enriching to 20 perce...

BREXIT REALITY: UK deploys warships in Channel to deter EU fishermen  By Iain Fraser - Geopolitical Journalist Gibraltar (Remote) www.GEOPoliticalMatters.com Google Indexed: 07:11 on 040121 The UK has embarked on a massive show of post-Brexit strength by assigning four warships to fisheries protection duties in what is seen as a "warning" to European fishing vessels over their "rights" to fish. Before the final Brexit witching hour signalling the end of the Brexit transition process a flotilla of Royal Navy warships left Portsmouth sailing to the English Channel with a mission brief to protect the UKs Sovereign fishing grounds.  The convoy, led by the newly launched £100m HMS Trent together with HMS Tamar, HMS Tyne and HMS Mersey ... Read Full Story Log In | Register

ECFR: The geopolitics of a covid-19 vaccine Posted By: PRChannel Team - Gibraltar www.GEOPoliticalMatters.com Google Indexed: 09:28 on 010121 How do we go forward with the global distribution of covid-19 vaccines and what kind of geopolitical implications do surround this endeavour? By Gunilla Carlsson & Anthony Dworkin (Senior Policy Fellow) As Europe is in the middle of the second wave of the covid-19 pandemic, everyone hopes that a vaccine will put an end to it and thereby stop raising the death tolls and repeating lockdowns.  In this week’s episode, Anthony Dworkin takes over the podcast to talk to Gunilla Carlsson, ECFR Council member and Vice-Chair of the Global Fund Strategy Committee, and Ilona Kickbusch, founding director and chair of the Global Health Centre at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva about the global distribution of covid-19 vaccines and the geopolitics surrounding this.  What are upcoming challenges for the C...