site banner
Soriek  1yr ago (text post)   1073 thread views

Transnational Thursdays 20

Happy 20 TTs guys.

I’ll be trying something new with this one and changing the format so the top level post only contains an explanation of the thread, like we do with Wellness Wednesdays and Fun Fridays. The country-specific coverage will be placed in separate comments where people can respond to them directly, or start their own threads as separate comments. This is part of my hope that long term this will become more of a permanent thread that sustains beyond me, because I likely won’t be around long term. In the short term as well, I’ve been trying to produce a lot of the user content but there will be weeks where I'm too busy, and it would be nice to have a stickied thread where people who want to can still chat foreign policy without me.

So:

This is a weekly thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or IR history. I usually start off with coverage of some current events from a mix of countries I follow personally and countries I think the forum might be interested in. In the past I've noticed good results from covering countries that users here live in, and having them chime in with more comprehensive responses. In that spirit I'll probably try to offer more snippets of western news (but you'll still get a lot of the global south). I don't follow present day European politics all that much so you'll have to fill in the blanks for me.

But also, no need to use the prompts here, feel free to talk about completely unmentioned countries, or skip country coverage entirely and chat about ongoing dynamics like wars or trade deals. You can even skip the present day and talk about IR history, or just whatever you’re reading at the moment - consider it very free form and open to everyone.

21
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Germany

Reportedly relations between Germany and its allies France and Italy have been a bit distant as of late. It’s not really clear to me what’s come up with France, but a row has broader implications for the EU, especially with approving aid for Ukraine:

David McAllister, chair of the European parliament’s foreign affairs committee and a key figure in the opposition Christian Democrats party, says he is concerned that the lack of contact between the chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, is causing delays on key decisions on battle tanks and fighter jets, and a future trade deal with Latin America…

The view is shared in France. Georgina Wright, director of the Europe programme at the Institut Montaigne thinktank in Paris, said: “My view is, yes, relations are strained. Yes, there are key issues that they need to overcome, based on actual policy disagreement and approach. But we shouldn’t exaggerate it too much."

Things are a bit clearer with Italy:

This week, fault lines in the relationship between Berlin and Rome were also exposed, with Giorgia Meloni writing to protest against Germany’s plans to finance two migrant NGOs operating in Italy.

It was likely to have contributed to Italy’s decision to withhold agreement from a new text on reforms to EU migration laws at a summit of interior ministers in Brussels last week.

No new EU-wide agreement emerged from the wrangling between them.

Immigration has of course become the hot topic as of late, overwhelming local governments and fueling the rise of the far right Alliance for Democracy up to 20% in polls (the Christian Democrats have 30% for comparison). Germany has responded by increasing its own border controls with Poland and the Czech Republic, apparently with the consent and cooperation of the latter two countries, in order to combat human trafficking. This is apparently allowed even within the Schengen Zone, which has some wiggle room for more border processing. Also:

Earlier this month, the country’s Interior Ministry said it would postpone “until further notice” its intake of migrants coming via Italy, under a European voluntary solidarity plan.

Berlin argues it has made the largest contribution and blames Rome’s decision to withdraw from its obligations to take back asylum seekers rejected in other countries.

During remarks on Wednesday, Faeser, who is running as the candidate for Scholz’s Social Democratic Party in Hesse, called on countries on Europe’s borders – including Italy – to “better protect” those borders and “apply the procedures” laid down by Brussels.

this is apparently allowed even within the Schengen Zone, which has some wiggle room for more border processing.

and was done before, for example during COVID. See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Area#Temporary_border_controls

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats