The Trump II administration’s trade wars and framing of the dollar’s reserve status have accelerated concerns about the sustainability of the current monetary and trade system. Against a backdrop of various disintegrative tendencies, our new book Deweaponizing Interdependence: Bringing the Idea of International Clearing Union into the Twenty-First Century reintroduces the concept of an International Clearing Union (ICU) and offers an important overview of critical approaches to the prevailing monetary system. [This blog, written with Jamie Morgan, was first published at the PPE-site on 2 March 2026.]

I wrote these answers to questions from a reporter from the Turkish news agency Anadolu (AA) on January 7. The central idea is that the EU could cancel the July trade deal with the US. Since few people in Finland or Europe follow Turkish media, I am publishing these answers as a blog.

The oil tanker hijackings, the US invasion of Venezuela, and the kidnapping of Maduro violate many laws. These include the UN Charter, the law of the sea (especially UNCLOS), and the 1988 Convention on Drug Trafficking. The attack is also problematic for the US’s own political and legal system. The Trump administration acted without congressional authorisation and ignored other legal considerations. In this blog, I consider to what extent the attack only deepens the ongoing retrogression towards traditional imperialism, and to what extent it is more a matter of the old dying at the time when the new cannot yet be born. Many pathological symptoms are evident in such an in-between state. [This text was first published by Brave New Europe on 4.1.2025]

As the Russo-Ukrainian war persists, the atmosphere in Europe has grown increasingly tense. Border violations or accusations of them now occur almost daily. In this regard, the situation is as dangerous as during the Cold War crises. It was only worse during the Cuban Missile Crisis.