{"id":19730,"date":"2020-01-03T16:59:18","date_gmt":"2020-01-03T16:59:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/?p=19730"},"modified":"2023-11-23T16:40:51","modified_gmt":"2023-11-23T16:40:51","slug":"the-week-in-foreign-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/2020\/01\/the-week-in-foreign-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"The week in foreign policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week has seen the continuation of devastating bush fires in<\/span> Australia<\/b> in which 11 people have died and around<\/span> half a billion animals<\/span><\/a> have lost their lives. The fires have been caused, at least in part, by soaring temperatures and winds. Prime Minister Scott Morrison was heckled when he visited a town in New South Wales ravaged by wildfire. He was forced to leave early as people called him an \u2018idiot\u2019 for overseeing the government\u2019s underwhelming response to the fires – and he faced controversy for going on holiday as parts of the country burned.<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, a dramatic shift in weather patterns has brought extreme drought to <\/span>Zambia<\/b>. More than 2 million people are now in need of food aid, <\/span>the BBC reports<\/span><\/a>, following two years of low rain and failed harvests.<\/span><\/p>\n

As tensions between the <\/span>US<\/b> and <\/span>Iran<\/b> escalate following the US\u2019s assassination of Qasem Soleimani, <\/span>Turkey<\/b>\u2019s parliament has passed a bill allowing the government to deploy troops to <\/span>Libya<\/b>, in support of the UN-backed Libyan government, who are fighting an insurgency in eastern Libya led by General Khalifa Haftar. The BBC\u2019s <\/span>Jonathan Marcus<\/span><\/a> suggests Turkey risks falling even deeper into the Libyan conflict through providing troops.<\/span><\/p>\n

In <\/span>Israel<\/b>, Benjamin Netanyahu has asked Parliament to grant him immunity from prosecution in three criminal cases (bribery, fraud and breach of trust), the <\/span>New York Times reports<\/span><\/a>. The immunity request could delay the criminal cases against him for months, convenient for Mr Netanyahu as he faces a general election in two months, the country\u2019s third in less than a year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Spain<\/b>\u2019s interim Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has <\/span>been backed by<\/span><\/a> Catalonia\u2019s largest separatist party (Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) to form a coalition government. Sanchez\u2019s Socialist Party has agreed to set up negotiations between the Spanish government and the Catalan government to \u2018unblock the political conflict over the future of Catalonia and establish the basis for its resolution\u2019\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Thirty people have died<\/span><\/a> after flooding and landslides hit <\/span>Jakarta<\/b>. Tens of thousands have fled their homes. Jakarta is sinking by several centimetres every year and much of it now lies below sea level.<\/span><\/p>\n

Austria <\/b>has a new government: Sebastian Kurz\u2019s centre-right People\u2019s Party, which came top in a snap election last September, has agreed on the terms of a <\/span>coalition government<\/span><\/a> with the Greens, led by Werner Kogler.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Interpol asked <\/span>Lebanon<\/b> to arrest Carlos Ghosn, the former chairman of Nissan who allegedly escaped Japan for Lebanon in a double bass case. Mr Ghosn faces charges in Lebanon relating to financial crimes. Lebanon does not extradite its citizens to foreign states.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Sunday <\/span>Juan Gauido will face re-election<\/span><\/a> as speaker of <\/span>Venezuela<\/b>\u2019s national assembly. President Nicolas Maduro has offered bribes of half a million dollars for opposition MPs not to back him. If he is not reelected, the 50+ countries that formally recognise Guaido as president will have to consider whether to continue their recognition. If he is reelected, the power struggle in Venezuela continues with Maduro commanding the support of the military, and Gauido commanding the support of much of the international community.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On Sunday, <\/span>Croatia<\/b> will <\/span>elect a new president<\/span><\/a>. Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, the incumbent and likely victor, will face Zoran Milanovic, a former Social Democratic prime minister, who polled more votes in the first round. Croata has taken over the presidency of the European Union and a general election must be held by December.<\/span><\/p>\n

You might have missed:<\/b><\/p>\n

The Telegraph: The five \u2018known unknowns\u2019 for Brexit in 2020<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

Peter Foster explores the great Brexit unknowns of 2020: will Boris listen to business? Will Brexit stop making front page news? What will really happen with Northern Ireland? Will the UK really diverge from the EU\u2019s regulatory and trading orbit? What will the transition period look like after December 2020?<\/span><\/p>\n

Foreign Policy China Brief: China\u2019s Monumental Year<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

James Palmer reviews the biggest China-related stories of 2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

Al Jazeera: Can Africa really benefit from Brexit?<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

Rashid Abdallah explores whether the new relationship with Africa that Theresa May promised will materialise under Boris Johnson, or indeed whether citizens of many African countries would feel the benefit even if it did.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Hill: 5 most important trends to watch in foreign policy in 2020<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

David Tafuri explores the trends to look out for in 2020, as mass protests look set to continue and increase instability, US troops deployed to Northern Syria to combat terrorism begin to withdraw, Trump weighs new sanctions on Iran and North Korea and cuts back support for democracy abroad, and no end is in sight for the US\u2019s many trade disputes.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week has seen the continuation of devastating bush fires in Australia in which 11 people have died and around half a billion animals have lost their lives. The fires have been caused, at least in part, by soaring temperatures and winds. Prime Minister Scott…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":21324,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[169],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uk-perspectives"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}