By: John Hulsman

Dr John C. Hulsman is senior columnist at City A.M., a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and president of John C. Hulsman Enterprises. He can be reached for corporate speaking and private briefings at www.chartwellspeakers.com.

Supping with the devil: Germany must wake up about Nord Stream 2

Energy quarrel

As far back as the 14th century, Geoffrey Chaucer put it very well in political risk terms when he said in “The Squire’s Tale” of Canterbury Tales, “He who sups with the devil should have a long spoon”. In mercantilist Germany’s case—where its foreign policy is all too often only an excuse for its export-driven [...]
Britain’s foreign policy rests on a new incarnation of the ‘Anglosphere’

Exactly twenty years ago I was one of a very small group of people to formulate the concept of the Anglosphere in international relations. It found that seven out of 10 of the world’s freest economies were former colonies of an eighth. For better or for worse, Bahrain, the US, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, [...]
The long shadow of Merkel: Germany has a future of delay and gridlock

The German public have a deep-seated, if misplaced, love for Angela Merkel. It centers around the notion that mutti (or “mommy”, as the Germans somewhat creepily call her) managed, through the skillful use of tactics, to keep many of the perils of her age away from placid Germany. Merkellism’s reliance on managing crises rather than [...]

A requiem for Afghanistan and America’s nation-building foreign policy

September 4, 2021

The past two weeks have left me, like so many others, sick to my stomach, looking at the unnecessary, tragic chaos accompanying America’s panicky withdrawal from Kabul. As heart-wrenching as pictures of the suffering and chaos are, they are largely beside the strategic point. Worse, they are being used by the very US foreign policy [...]
China’s cover up of Covid exposes a rotten regime built on deceit

August 19, 2021

Too often, conspiracy theories rest on the erroneous assumption that our enemies are both highly evil and highly competent. Most of the time, the opposite is true. The description of Watergate in the peerless thriller All the President’s Men, offers us a more accurate picture: “Forget the myths you’ve read about the White House, these [...]
The damning case against China over Covid-19 deserves proper attention

June 1, 2021

As John Stuart Mill so eloquently wrote: “the only thing necessary for evil to triumph in the world is for enough good men to do nothing.” Fortified by this moral admonition, I went on to write an April 2020 piece in CapX, charging the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) with direct culpability in the spread of [...]
Belarus’ act of aviation piracy and kidnapping proves the obvious: anyone can bully the EU

May 25, 2021

Yesterday, within about five minutes of one another, both my partner and a colleague drolly made the same comment: “I know Ryanair is tough about customer service, but I didn’t realise you had to pay extra to avoid being kidnapped.” There were, of course, referring to the dreadful act of piracy that occurred over the [...]
French ex-Generals war-mongering will help push mainstream politicians into Macron’s arms

April 29, 2021

Unlike most of the developed world, France moves through history not via the serenity of political evolution, but rather through the dramatic lurch of revolution, as the country continues to eye-catchingly over-correct its political failings. The last time this happened was in the heady days of 1958, when an army revolt against the chaotic, parliamentary-dominated [...]
Fighting Russian and Chinese disinformation requires a cohesive strategy from Western governments

April 8, 2021

Given the world of the internet and multiple platforms, there is undoubtedly more content out there than at any other time in the history of man. Unfortunately, and predictably, along with this news explosion, the very unhealthy scourge of state-sponsored disinformation–with the West’s authoritarian foes trying to take advantage of this editorially unregulated Wild West [...]
Defending the rulebook: Overcoming America’s Darkest Day

January 7, 2021

This is a time for elemental thoughts. Following one of the darkest days in the history of the American Republic, when an armed mob set in motion by Donald Trump marched on the capitol, ransacking it, and pressured lawmakers to overturn the 2020 election results (words I never, ever thought I’d write), it is time [...]

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