Global Outlook

The South Korea-US summit on May 21 came to a successful conclusion. It served as an opportunity for making the two countries’ alliance more reciprocal and comprehensive.

The risk of nuclear war is real. A ‘no first use’ policy of nuclear weapons would actually bolster US security – and underpin its global leadership role.

Even before the new US administration has sorted its political priorities—a necessity after four erratic Trump years—it is already forced to show the flag on foreign policy. Recently, the war between Israel and Hamas, at the same time the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, the complicated relationship with Russia, the dysfunctional relations within NATO, the sensitivities of the German government resulting from disagreements over the North Stream 2 gas pipeline, and so on.

For more than thirty years, a majority of people in Myanmar have seen Daw Aung San Suu Kyi as their legitimate leader. Her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), won the 1990 elections for a national assembly that was never allowed to meet. On November 8 2015 and November 8 2020, the NLD again twice won by a landslide. Yet, when the elected MPs were to convene in Naypyidaw on 1 February 2021, they were instead placed under arrest.

The state of India’s health security remains exposed by the ravaging spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. The first wave of the pandemic, which had comparatively fewer fatalities, caused acute economic decline because of the unavoidable national and regional lockdowns imposed to contain the spread of the virus.

After initial test drilling in northern Namibia since the beginning of the year, the Canadian gas and oil exploration company Reconnaissance Energy Africa (ReconAfrica) announced on 15 April 2021 that analyses of the drilling samples had provided evidence of the existence of a "functioning petroleum system".