’Tis indeed the season to be jolly, but don’t expect much merriment here. To be sure, the weeks of France’s ongoing strikes against the attempt by the government of President Emmanuel Macron to reform the country’s creaky retirement system is…
Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s resounding win in last week’s United Kingdom elections is the rough equivalent of winning the U.S. presidency by a margin of 10 percent. That’s a landslide by anyone’s measure. Johnson campaigned on the slogan of “Get…
If, as is likely, you got your French history info from Michael Curtiz’s Casablanca, you know the legendary French Resistance (small bands of patriots that suddenly included 40 million Frenchmen on June 8, 1944) began in Africa as well as…
London On Wednesday, President Donald Trump abruptly left a NATO summit near London and canceled a scheduled press conference after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was caught on camera amusing fellow big shots as he marveled at Trump’s long-winded sessions…
Nervous self-congratulation will be the order of the day next week in London as representatives of the 29 member nations convene to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. There will be much relief expressed that President…
After years of Islamist terror attacks from Paris to the Riviera that have left hundreds dead, you might think that the French are inured to the fact that they are the jihadists’ favorite target in the Western world. But now…
In announcing the army will be mobilized in anticipation of yet another demonstration in Paris by yellow-vested protesters — a regular weekend occurrence since November — French president Emmanuel Macron appears to be playing double or nothing. If the strategy…
Former secretary of state Henry Kissinger famously asked, “Who do I call if I want to call Europe?” Since the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte, that question has been unanswerable because Europe never spoke with one voice. For the last dozen…
The French scholar Patrice Gueniffey, a specialist in the French Revolution and the leading contemporary authority on the Napoleonic era, refers to Walter Bagehot on the two essential requirements of any regime, dignity and efficiency. Without an aura of dignity,…
