This Week’s Top 5 Picks in International History and Diplomacy

(Image: Andrew Parsons/10 Downing Street)

UK and EU agree to ‘last throw of the dice’ in Brexit trade deal talks

Jim Brunsden, Sam Fleming, and George Parker

Financial Times

The UK and the EU have agreed to make one final attempt to secure a post-Brexit trade deal, with talks set to resume in Brussels on Sunday, in what British officials claim is “the last throw of the dice”.

Boris Johnson and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen agreed during a phone call on Saturday that an eleventh hour push should be made to get a deal over the line.

In a joint statement after the call, the two leaders said “that a further effort should be undertaken by our negotiating teams” to assess whether outstanding disagreements “can be resolved”. (Read more)

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This Week’s Top 5 Picks in International History and Diplomacy

(Image: Alvaro Dominguez)

Trump Still Has 70 Days to Wreak Havoc Around the World

Robert Malley and Philip H. Gordon

New York Times

Of the countless challenges President-elect Joe Biden will face when he assumes office, few will be as daunting as reversing President Trump’s legacy of bulldozing multilateral institutions, ripping up past international agreements, shattering norms and undermining longstanding alliances.

Mr. Biden has vowed to turn the page on the “aberration” of Mr. Trump’s foreign policy. Some Trump-induced changes will easily be reversed, but many will be challenging to unwind, and some are likely to be indelible. Mr. Trump, who has already undermined the international order and isolated the United States, now appears determined to use his final 10 weeks in office to pursue a scorched-earth foreign policy that will only make Mr. Biden’s job harder and leave the world even less stable on Jan. 20. (Read more)


Continue reading “This Week’s Top 5 Picks in International History and Diplomacy”