PRINCETON  —  On July 26, 2012, the European Central Bank’s (ECB) relatively new president, Mario Draghi, famously declared that, “the ECB is ready to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro. And believe me, it will be enough”.

PRINCETON  —  Rich Western industrialised countries appear to be caught in a time loop, with unexpectedly higher inflation bringing back not just memories of the 1970s but also that era’s policy debates and the political insecurities.

PRINCETON  —  Russia’s attack on Ukraine is coming to resemble many previous geopolitical crises. Throughout history, episodes that initially seemed like temporary disruptions have become prolonged affairs.

PRINCETON  —  Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has challenged the international order, but so has the response from large industrial countries.

PRINCETON  —  Historian Samuel Huntington’s famous thesis that the post-Cold War world would be defined by a “clash of civilisations” turned out to be quite wrong.

PRINCETON — One clear lesson from last month’s damp squib of a climate summit in Glasgow is that multilateralism is difficult to pull off. This has always been the case.

PRINCETON — Economic and financial policymaking tends to move like a pendulum. Euphoria about the potential of government action is usually followed by backlash, disillusion and lowered ambitions. “Can-do” rhetoric gives way to “mustn’t-do” restrictions and rules.

PRINCETON — The razor-thin outcome of the German election marks a watershed in the history of the Federal Republic, signaling the final disintegration of the near-two-party system that long characterised the politics of West Germany and then of reunified Germany after 1990.Togeth

PRINCETON — This year includes big anniversaries in the history of the international monetary order.