While Israel has largely abstained from direct involvement in the Syrian civil war, it has a vested interest in the conflict’s outcome and should support a resolution to the conflict that reflects both its humanitarian concerns and national security interests: ending the carnage and limiting the threat posed by the Iran-led axis. 

Council of Councils members offer their perspectives on the upcoming G20 leaders summit, which will be held in Hamburg, Germany, on July 7–8.  

Developments in the past six months have fed perceptions that, while the EU is not perfect, it is no longer under threat of collapse. However, this emerging perception could induce a dangerously complacent attitude that EU leaders can ill afford. In fact, the EU remains mired in a crisis of confidence and legitimacy of unprecedented proportion. What is needed, therefore, is a sober assessment of the challenges and risks that the EU faces and its possible options to sort out the present crisis and resume a sustainable integration path forward.

Bartosz Wisniewski of the Polish Institute of International Affairs examines the future of NATO under the Trump administration. He finds that growing tensions in East Asia might serve as a reinforcing argument for those in the United States who urge European NATO members to do more for common defense. And given Trump’s participation, the late May NATO leaders’ meeting in Brussels will be the best opportunity for his administration so far to revisit some basics truths about the value of alliances, and NATO in particular.

It remains difficult to predict who will be the eventual winner of France’s upcoming presidential elections, but two of the four candidates that could emerge victorious support policies far outside the traditional French and European consensus. Their extreme positions may lead to the end of French membership in both the EU and the NATO, and consequently unravel the postwar effort to bind the European continent. 

While the protection of data is at the center of cybersecurity, privacy, and internet functioning, most of us are end users of the information that data comprises. Approaches to cyber governance need to give more prominence to the concept of information integrity in addition to the current emphasis on data security. Safeguarding a trustworthy internet and building confidence in the integrity of information is a critical part of a strong cybersecurity regime because there is a growing risk that political and personal decisions are based on inadequate or false information in cyberspace.