Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #NeoIdealism

Most recents (14)

#Germany’s first National Security Strategy was published today.

A short 🧵 of reflections on what is, overall, a disappointing document (even taking account of lower expectations) - but also has some interesting & positive points to work with.

nationalesicherheitsstrategie.de/en.html
1/
Many have summarised the content - but thats not my purpose here. For a summary - & also a quite different take, see @RikeFranke's thread here

But, I want to draw attention to some other issues
2/
Even though there will be no national security council, this is clearly a strategy by committee - there are LOTS of very different items included [a fault of many other strategies too] but in this case there are competing worldviews trying to be squeezed into one document
3/
Read 18 tweets
How to deal with #Russia
- Short thread based on my talk at #LennartMeriConference 2023. #NeoIdealism

1. Ukraine's war is our war - & must be won.
That means restoring UA's 1991 borders & ensuring UA's ability to defend them - & the people within them. Image
2. After victory we have to get #Ukraine into #NATO & the #EU as fast as possible.
- As @SwedishPM has said:
This should be merit based but cannot again be an excuse for going soft or going slow on UA's accession.
- we have to institutionally tie our future to UA's.
3. We have to overcome any residual fears of #Ukraine's victory and #Russia's defeat.
As @EliotACohen said in Warsaw - RU must lose & know it has lost:
on the battlefield, its offensive military capability for 10 years & has lost Ukraine for good.
Read 13 tweets
There's been criticism of the detail (esp re #Poland, which has already delivered Leos) - but @JeremyCliffe's main point is right.
▶️I'd actually take it further (it's not about #Germany but about #Ukraine), which is why we need to talk about #Finland🧵

newstatesman.com/quickfire/2023…
I've repeatedly praised #Finland's approach to standing up #Russia & have written on its own #Zeitenwende in joining #NATO.
I've also repeatedly praised @MarinSanna as a figurehead of #NeoIdealism - who's been wonderfully clear on how & why #Ukraine must win & RU must lose
/2
So, to be clear, this is not a general critique of🇫🇮or '🇫🇮 bashing'!
- BUT on the tank issue, I think #Finland has got it wrong.
- According to public info they have agreed to send
3 Patria Leopard2R heavy mine breaching tanks
-But NO #Leopard2 MBTs
ip-quarterly.com/en/zeitenwende…
/3
Read 23 tweets
If the #EU & it’s member states really wanted to do something about #Orban’s #Hungary, they would.

- The mess over ratifying #Sweden & #Finland’s NATO membership is only the latest incident & 🇭🇺‘a continuing presence is a stain on 🇪🇺reputation & effectiveness.
🇭🇺should go. 🧵/1 Image
In case anyone doubts the game playing over 🇫🇮& 🇸🇪’s #NATO membership the country’s foreign minister Peter Szijjarto made it clear earlier this week
- Fidesz now says it will support accession but it has been a farce & again cast doubt on 🇪🇺competence /2

euobserver.com/nordics/156770
Thankfully, Commission VP @VeraJourova (already among the tougher voices on Orban in Brussels) seems to have had enough
A lesson we should have learned from recent years is that we can’t treat illiberal actors in a liberal way.
#NeoIdealism
/3


euractiv.com/section/politi…
Read 6 tweets
This is how it started on 24/02/22.

But it was a day later on 25/02/22, a year ago today, that, thanks to @bbcnickrobinson,
I heard a first signal of hope amid the unfolding horror.

I wondered if, for #Ukraine, it could be different this time ...
🧵1/
On 25/02/22 as I was pushing my sleeping daughter in her stroller, listening to @BBCr4today, Nick Robinson spoke from the roof of the hotel where he was holed up in #Kyiv.

And, looking over the city, he said something that stopped me in my tracks.
#Ukraine
2/
@bbcnickrobinson urged listeners to follow his gaze as he looked over this ‘modern, dynamic and vibrant European city’ ...

now, this may not seem like much, but for anyone who has followed #Ukraine for a long time, its significance would have been immediately apparent.

3/
Read 25 tweets
Paying this national security premium is actually an investment in our future: it gives us the chance to make our democracies what we claim them to be - and thus to reactivate our soft & transformative power.
opencanada.org/is-canada-read…
14/
No longer relying on the cheap shortcuts of (dependencies on) market & fossil fuel on authoritarian regimes should be the spur to transform our own societies to deliver a better future, to revive the hope of progress & share its benefits more fairly.

15/
We can seize this opportunity to change in ways that we have long known we need to: technologically, economically, socially & politically. So while there would be costs for standing firm, standing up for #Ukraine & standing up to #Russia, they are really investments.
16/
Read 6 tweets
A long, thoughtful article by @jnpowell1 who knows a lot about negotiations. it contains many insightful & useful observations.
But I disagree with its main thrust & key choices he outlines - A 🧵 on why
#Ukraine #Russia #NeoIdealism
1/
prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/ukrai…
My main objection is to this framing of the ‘issues between #Ukraine & #Russia’ as somehow not being clear & clearly 🇷🇺’s fault & 🇷🇺’s problem.🇷🇺 needs to get out of 🇺🇦 & stop menacing it’s neighbours.

There can be no bothsidesing - it is wrong & sets terrible precedent.
2/ Image
Equivocating on the problem - #Russia- also sets any negotiations up in completely the wrong way. There is nothing to concede here - we must show we are 100% behind #Ukraine’s concept of victory (all its territory back & viable deterrence of future RU aggression).
3/
Read 12 tweets
🔥 🧵s on #NeoIdealism 🧵 🔥

2. Why is 'Neo-Idealism' called 'Neo-Idealism'?

- I outlined this new approach to #IR & Grand Strategy in a previous thread (see linked tweet).
- Now I dig deeper into the name & concept

1/25
I first introduced the idea of #NeoIdealism in a piece for @RUSI_org in April '22 but Its fullest elaboration so far is in my book - 'To #Ukraine With Love'
- published last month & available now on kindle & paperback😎
amazon.com/Ukraine-Love-E…

So why call it Neo-Idealism?

2/25
Some of the Neo-Idealists from #CEE - sometimes explicitly - seek to refresh the hopeful, people-centred politics that flourished in the post-communist transitions of the 1990s but which had wilted more recently, especially after the 2008 financial crisis
3/25
Read 25 tweets
1. What is Neo-Idealism?
(seeing as many of you have asked)
It’s a new approach to Grand Strategy & International Relations that I think we can see emerging in responses to #Russia’s war & from #Ukraine’s brave resistance.
1st 🧵in a series on #NeoIdealism
1/25
I introduced the idea of #NeoIdealism in a piece for @RUSI_org in April '22. Its fullest elaboration so far is in my book 'To #Ukraine With Love' that came out last month - available on kindle & paperback on all amazon stores 😃
So what is it? 2/25
amazon.co.uk/Ukraine-Love-E…
#NeoIdealism is a morally based approach to the geopolitical pursuit of interests that emphasises all democratic states, including smaller states' rights to self-determination - e.g. in joining spheres of Integration (EU, NATO) & rejecting spheres of influence (🇷🇺 empire)
3/25
Read 25 tweets
OK, it’s on!

To #Ukraine With Love
Essays on #Russia’s War & #Europe’s Future

- is now out on @amazon Paperback and #Kindle

➡️a short(ish) thread of thanks
- & promotion as 📖 raises awareness &💰for 🇺🇦.

(UK order link below
others follow in🧵).

amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0BPW9…
So what is the book about?

- it collects a lot of my Essays, Interviews, Op-Eds & Analytical Commentaries for media & think tanks from Dec 21 - Dec 22

& adds ➕➕➕

amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0BPQ7…
➡️ a brand new #Longread piece
‘The New Idealism’

- the deepest development of #NeoIdealism so far as an emerging approach to #grandstrategy & #internationalrelations.

- what is Neo-Idealism (& why the name?) & who are the Neo-Idealists.

#Ukraine
amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0BPQ7…
Read 28 tweets
1/ As suggested by @PopovaProf, I'd like to comment on the recent remarks by the #Brazilian president-elect, @LulaOficial, on the #Russian war of aggression in #Ukraine. Needless to say, many were struck by the ignorance and brutishness of these utterances. A 🧵...
2/ But what lies behind this? Many European/US observers seem dumbfounded by the fact that a leader who is widely (and correctly) believed to have bravely stood against dictatorship in his own country would support a genocidal warmonger such as #Putin on the international stage.
3/ The sources of Lula's (and #LatinAmerica's more widely) attitudes towards the war are many, and differ widely between countries, contexts, and social strata. The probably most often mentioned one is anti-Americanism, stemming from a variety of sources, but often relevant...
Read 22 tweets
Why was this cynical populist given such a prominent platform & not properly challenged?

Per @vonderburchard: this was a journalistic mess. Classic 🇩🇪Cynicism (like the #Emma letter)

Such a stunt only serves to corrode our democracies - exactly what we should be pushing back on
This is exactly the kind of thing that undermines our societies - it seems to show that you can free ride on democracy, parasite on the decency of others & get away with it. A bad example.
orban should be shut down rather than celebrated (🇭🇺 out of 🇪🇺unless it changes it’s ways)
Certainly we need serious reform & reinvention in our own societies - but we also need to stop shooting ourselves in the foot. This was just a dumb exercise. If we reduce politics to this kind of sorry piss-taking spectacle we will reap what we sow. We will suffer & so will 🇺🇦
Read 5 tweets
#Germany’s Chancellor #Scholz seems to reject the #visaban - sticking to the same discredited reasoning that he outlined last week. This comes after #Czechia (which holds the #EU Presidency) supported of the measure proposed by #Finland & #Estonia

dw.com/en/germanys-sc…
So what will #Germany propose instead? How will it listen to the concerns of #NCEE countries including those whose views it has repeatedly trampled over in its dealings with #Russia.
Coming after the Kaliningrad fiasco #Scholz risks creating a real rift in the #EU.
#visaban
There are different views on the #visaban but rubbing nonsense excuses in the faces of partners who have repeatedly shown they have a *much* better grasp of the situation concerning #Ukraine & #Russia is not a good look. Nor is appearing to put 🇷🇺concerns ahead of 🇺🇦🇫🇮🇪🇪🇨🇿 …
Read 11 tweets
Recent Publications & Threads (A 🧵)
I. Articles & Commentaries Published
II. Interviews with me on (European) Politics & Security
III. Threads on #Ukraine #Germany #EU #UK #CEE and more.
Gathered in one place ...
I. Articles and Commentaries

8. Are #Czechia & #Slovakia the #EU's New Radical Centre
for @RUSI_org
rusi.org/explore-our-re…
I. Articles and Commentaries

7. Ukraine Doesn't Need Half-Measures from the #EU
for @ForeignPolicy
foreignpolicy.com/2022/04/07/ukr…
Read 21 tweets

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