News

With Angela Merkel’s career on the line due to the mounting immigration crisis in Germany and beyond, many are watching for a person who could replace her. Recently, former German economics minister and former defense minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg has surfaced once again in the press as a future contender for the chancellor’s office.

“Australia will increase defense spending by nearly A$30 billion ($21.6 billion [USA]) over the next 10 years, seeking to protect its strategic and trade interests in the Asia-Pacific as the United States and its allies grapple with China’s rising power… The announcement riled Beijing, where the Foreign Ministry expressed ‘dissatisfaction’ with Australia’s ‘negative’  remarks on the South China Sea and its military development” (Reuters, February 25, 2016).

Russia continues to make strategic moves in the global chess game. Capitalizing on the weakened foreign policy of the United States, Russia continues to seize opportunities to exercise its power and influence across the globe. “More than two decades after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, Moscow is once again seeking to play a major role in the country by boosting military and economic cooperation with Kabul” (Deutsche Welle, March 2, 2016).

The European Union is having a tough time at present. Not only has it had to deal with GREXIT (the possible exit of Greece from the Eurozone), and continuing debt problems in its southern member states, but the widely reported enormous refugee crisis as well. Now to add to its concerns, the EU faces both a possible BREXIT, with Britain leaving Europe, and unrest on its eastern fringes.