Essays & News

  At the Munich Security Conference, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz delivered a remarkable speech. In many respects, it was refreshing and stood out positively from the lukewarm and uninspired addresses of the past two decades. As expected at Munich, he focused on foreign and security policy, European cohesion and transatlantic relations. Notably, he projected a […]

  For more than two decades, the EU–Mercosur agreement remained out of reach—endlessly negotiated, periodically revived, and repeatedly declared dead. Since its launch in 1999, it has weathered financial crises, political shifts, and environmental disputes on both sides of the Atlantic. If finally implemented, it would unite the European Union and the Mercosur bloc—Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay—into […]

  Universities are often idealized as neutral spaces of knowledge creation and critical thinking. However, this image has never been entirely accurate, and it is increasingly at odds with reality. Across many disciplines, research agendas and teaching practices are shaped less by open-ended investigation and more by ideological alignment. The politicization of academic life has […]

  Chokepoints play crucial roles and deserve careful consideration. This applies to various situations, ranging from individual circumstances to interactions among businesses, local and regional authorities, and especially rivalries between major powers. In the latter case, these involve the control of supply chains, access to markets, infrastructure, trade routes, strategic locations and military mobility. The […]

  There’s been an ongoing debate in Argentina about the federal budget results under the Milei administration. I want to be very clear: the numbers show significant improvement, and Milei’s administration has been successful in putting the “deficit issue” on center stage. Yet, there are also good reasons why some Argentine economists point to potential problems and […]