Francis Shin (FrancisShin.com)

What the Labour government should (and shouldn’t) take away from the Unite the Kingdom rally The government mustn’t view the rally as a reason to pursue harsher immigration policies, but instead a chance to reset its approach on day-to-day issues the public is facing.

What policy takeaways should the UK govt have with rising anti-immigration sentiment? My latest discusses how the Labour govt's attempts to win over the anti-immigration electorate are at strong risk of backfiring.

franciswshin.substack.com/p/what-the-l...

I argue that the European Climate Mechanism (ECM) should be deliberately modeled upon @bruegel.org's proposed European Defence Mechanism, drawing upon private investment in tandem with public spending to lower decarbonization costs for Europe.

Europe's climate financing should resemble its defence spending plans

Europe’s decarbonization bank should be a European Climate Mechanism—pooling capital, driving investments, and creating a unified clean energy market. The result? Lower costs, better cooperation, and stronger global competition.

My latest in @brusselstimes.com

www.brusselstimes.com/opinion/1719...

The governance and funding of European rearmament Europe must accelerate rearmament through deeper cooperation and innovative governance to counter Russia’s aggression and shifting US policies

To build the force's strategic enablers, Europe must scale daunting financial hurdles. A multilateral fund that addresses such costs could be key to its success, building upon an idea by @guntramwolff.bsky.social @steinbacharmin.bsky.social @jzettelmeyer.bsky.social.

www.bruegel.org/policy-brief...

Any reassurance force for Ukraine requires Europe to develop a robust military industrial capacity. My latest in @neweasterneurope.eu argues that the expected long-term deployment of the force means Europe must manufacture its own "strategic enablers" to better defend Ukraine and itself.

French European Diplomacy post-2024 – the Little Entente Revisited? « History# « Cambridge Core Blog French president Emmanuel Macron outlined his new vision for French foreign policy in a speech on 5 March 2025. He argued that the Russian invasion of Ukraine posed a threat to all of Europe. Europe h...

Is France recreating a century-old alliance in this time of geopolitical uncertainty? My latest for @conteurohistory.bsky.social
#history #skystorians #diplomacy

www.cambridge.org/core/blog/20...

The Case for the European Security Council A steering committee for European security policymaking must be inclusive and flexible

Amid discussions of European security at the NATO summit, my latest article on Substack analyzes how a European Security Council fore regional security policymaking should be structured to be both inclusive and decisive in its decision-making.

franciswshin.substack.com/p/the-case-f...

Swiss security experts agree that a Russian victory in Ukraine would have a severe impact on their national security. This is why Swiss security policy, especially its arms control regulations, have begun to shift as policymakers reevaluate how Switzerland can maintain its armed neutrality.

How is Switzerland balancing its armed neutrality doctrine with strengthening security ties with the EU? My latest in @euobserver.com discusses how Swiss national security strategy is being tailored with the EU amid the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War, and areas where this cooperation could go further.

Can Switzerland maintain its neutrality while increasing its security cooperation with the EU? My latest in @euobserver.com suggests that a Swiss-EU entente, based upon a "commitment to consult" on security policy (like arms control) could be a way to thread this needle.

Check out my debut on Substack in my latest piece co-written with @samkra.bsky.social! We examine how the recent electoral troubles of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) starkly resembles the dramatic downfall of Italy's Christian Democracy in the 1990s.

Amid recent uncertainties on how the Russo-Ukrainian War may end, Europe's nuclear energy policy may be approaching a critical juncture. In my latest piece in @neweasterneurope.eu co-written with Jacob Paquette, we explore how this opens new opportunities for energy collaboration with Kazakhstan.

Amid recent uncertainties on how the Russo-Ukrainian War may end, Europe's nuclear energy policy may be approaching a critical juncture. In my latest piece in @neweasterneurope.eu co-written with Jacob Paquette, we explore how this opens new opportunities for energy collaboration with Kazakhstan.

Britain and France working on plans for ‘reassurance force’ to protect Ukraine Officials say the proposal would involve less than 30,000 troops and be concentrated on air and maritime defence

4. (END) If Ukraine joined NATO, members would be obligated to view the Russian invasion as an attack upon the entire alliance. No such obligation would exist with a European "reassurance force" which is why Ukraine's partition might be under consideration.

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/f...

Mike Waltz rejects the idea of Ukraine joining NATO amid peace talks National security adviser Mike Waltz said Ukrainian membership to the military alliance is “not back on the table.”

3. As senior US officials are openly opposing Ukraine's membership in NATO, it seems likely that whatever security guarantees Ukraine might get under a peace deal will not come from NATO, but from this European peacekeeping force.

www.politico.com/news/2025/02...

Macron warns Ukraine peace can't mean 'surrender,' after Trump talks The French president said that both leaders wanted a 'solid, long-lasting peace' at a joint press conference with his American counterpart on Monday, adding that he wanted 'strong' US involvement in a...

2. These European peacekeepers are not meant to be on the frontlines, and there was no mention of Ukraine's NATO membership bid in this potential agreement either. This suggests an official or de facto partition of Ukraine is under consideration.

www.lemonde.fr/en/france/ar...

Trump says Putin will accept European peacekeepers in Ukraine France’s Macron corrects US president’s claim that Europe has only loaned funds to Kyiv at White House meeting

1. An odd day for US diplomacy. Mere hours after the US voting against a UN resolution condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the US President is claiming that Russia would accept European peacekeepers in Ukraine. The likely catch remains in the details though:

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Did Trump Quietly Kill a Sensitive Pentagon Probe into Elon Musk? The New York Times revealed last year that Musk and SpaceX failed to meet federal reporting requirements for Pentagon contractors. No one has asked: What’s going on with that today?

It's time to ask: What's going on with those reviews into Musk/SpaceX's failure to meet basic reporting protocol linked to their billions in Pentagon contracts?

Dems tell me they fear these investigations might get killed under Trump. 2/

(link)
newrepublic.com/article/1913...

Elon Musk's mother moved to South Africa in the year Apartheid was created, and she and Elon left the year it ended. The last Apartheid Prime Minister, a man who refused to testify at the Truth and Reconciliation Committee, was a family friend who stayed at their home. This is not a crazy theory.

Trump's Return is the Perfect Opportunity to Restore the UK as a Development Superpower Donald Trump's decision to freeze all foreign aid opens the door for Britain to re-exert it's own position on the world stage, argues Francis Shin

USAID's closure will exacerbate global security risks. My latest in @bylinetimes.bsky.social, written before the disputes around USAID, argues the UK must restore its Dept for Intl Dev and return itself to its "dev superpower" status amid this void of US leadership.

bylinetimes.com/2025/01/31/u...

If such places destabilize due to war, climate change, and/or corruption, all those imports will be at risk and Britain's standard of living would decline. However, that's all *before* we even get into how those risks could impact national security.

Britain and Canada have achieved a lot when working together in the G7, Commonwealth, and other institutions on intl dev. Wouldn't hurt for Canada to consider restoring its own CIDA while it was at it.

The 2nd Trump admin's freezing of US aid abroad has opened a large and dangerous vacuum in intl dev. My latest in @bylinetimes.bsky.social argues that Britain should restore the Dept for Intl Dev to return the UK to its "dev superpower" status and aim to fill this void.

Yoon's Failed Coup Already Has Serious Implications for South Korea's Security Partnerships Now former President of South Korea, Yoon Suk-yeol, staged a coup just before the end of 2024. The result? It was over before it started, however, the short-lived coup rocked Korean politics to its co...

The fallout from Yoon's failed self-coup in South Korea has already had enormous impact on South Korean foreign policy. My latest in the National Interest discusses these repercussions on the Camp David Entente and AUKUS Pillar II frameworks.

nationalinterest.org/blog/korea-w...

This morning, an oddly familiar face greeted me on the Washington Post's front page coverage of Jimmy Carter's memorial services.

It was an honor and a privilege, Mr. President.

In this piece, I discuss how AI's rise in entertainment could cut jobs and stifle creativity. To address this, I propose the UK Culture Dept enter consultations with the Culture Committee, trade unions, and industry leaders to craft legislation that safeguards UK creative industries.

AI is transforming entertainment, but regulation lags behind. In Anticipations (Autumn 2024, @youngfabians.bsky.social), I argue the UK’s cultural superpower status positions it to lead global governance on AI in the entertainment industry.

www.francisshin.com/s/Anticipati...

Europe must develop more flexible and decisive institutions for security policymaking. My latest in @neweasterneurope.eu argues that a European Security Council would meet these needs by acting as a policy steering committee to complement existing NATO and EU structures.