New letter by the 🇩🇪🇪🇸🇮🇹🇫🇷 Ministers of Defence laying out their ambitions for European defence.

If you remember 2016/17, this is (partly) how PESCO, MPCC and the others started (eg club.bruxelles2.eu/wp-content/upl…).

Much to unpack so brace for thread. 1/x

👉defense.gouv.fr/content/downlo… In a nutshell, what's in it?

1/ Lessons Learned from #COVID19
2/ lays out what remains to be done in EU defence initiatives, ie basically a to-do list
3/ "Today more than ever, we need to allocate the necessary resources to our defence, both at national and EU level" #MFF 2/x

[THREAD] Should the US withdraw its forces from Africa to better focus on China and Russia?

A thread in light of the recent Pau Summit and as the US is considering a significant drawdown. 1/13

https://twitter.com/WarOnTheRocks/status/1220695117335580673

1/ The situation in the Sahel is not good. Terrorist attacks have been deadly in the past months and are moving south, towards the tri-border region of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. But it’s not hopeless.

➡️ A good explainer
africacenter.org/publication/re… by @Pauline_Le_Roux 2/13