Not knowing where his botched war on Ukraine goes next might force Putin to just dig in and wait

World View: It will become harder to conceal differences western leaders have glossed over

Runoff will reveal whether he broke the mould or facilitated far-right’s rise

World View: West overestimated leader’s global clout – and maybe also his domestic muscle

Soon the West will have to consider how the Russian president can be offered an off-ramp

World View: Europe’s major powers are bystanders in what is a straight fight between the US and Russia

The threat of conflict has been enough to unsettle neighbours and win concessions

Far right and left parties have quietly been dropping their hardest eurosceptic policies

French president’s swipe at the unvaccinated exposes divisions to his right

The president’s path has been cleared to lead for life, but he faces problems domestically

Sacking of Irishwoman Emma Reilly highlights long-standing dilemma

Whereas Brussels once denounced states for building fences, it now helps police them

World View: A scarcity of affordable housing and secure jobs has torn the social contract

The Johnson government’s approach meant a killer disease was allowed to run rampant

Pandemic boosts hybrid social democracy as it battles far-right and radical left

The internet, border controls, supply chains and migration are the new weapons in our globalised world

Biden’s priorities are domestic, his foreign policy set for his home audience

Decent, pragmatic, steady-handed German leader recoiled from Europe’s biggest threats

Can world powers learn lessons from this event and apply them to global warming?

Evidence so far suggests pandemic has merely reinforced people’s existing views

Public expectations of sports and the organisations that run them are changing

Swift response to Belarus contrasts with EU’s inability to deal with threats to democracy in Hungary and Poland

World View: Failure of international bodies to speak with one voice works to Israel’s advantage

The ‘American First’ legacy lives on in ways the Biden White House might not like to admit

Europe’s Covid story has not yet been written, and it is possible a longer view might be more forgiving

Lack of transparency on Oxford-developed vaccine fuel for European and US caution

Will the man who Sarkozy once said had ‘the charisma of an oyster’ run for the Élysée?

Convulsions of past weeks suggest forces unleashed by 2016 vote still shape continent’s affairs

In Washington bipartisan deal-making is about as useful as knowing how to use a fax

World view: The ragtag mob storming the US Capitol should be taken deadly seriously

2020 in review: The virus hit people who witnessed the past century’s defining moments

World View: At the root of British antipathy lies a fear it is a dark plot to indoctrinate the young in the ideology of Euro-super(...)

The vainglorious will see vaccine success as an easy way to recover their standing

The unorthodox process for choosing Séamus Woulfe has shone a light on a defective system

Internationalists hope Biden victory heralds wider fall in far-right fortunes

Ex-government insiders indicate taoiseach would usually discuss candidates for role

Dysfunctional system for appointing Supreme Court judges is in desperate need of an overhaul

World View: International scientific co-operation on Covid-19 not replicated by governments

Even most Ministers tend not to see how a Government arrives at selections for judicial roles

At least three judges wrote to Government seeking job taken by former attorney general

Public faith in the system has been eroding for decades but accelerated after 2008 crash

Dysfunction and decay in American democracy are harbingers of waning authority

Coronavirus disaster for continent avoided for range of social and experiential reasons

The five-country visit of China’s chief diplomat have underlined how relations with the EU have deteriorated in just a few months

Book review: A lament on the state of contemporary, growth-stunted Britain as well as a paean to Germany

World View: Risk of nuclear weapons being used is higher now than during the cold war

Too late to untangle Kremlin web woven around London in last two decades

Perceiving mandatory face coverings as ‘state interference’ is dangerous lunacy

World view: Netanyahu’s plan has provoked anger and alarm but less uproar than expected

It was a 15-year campaign. In the end, most of the Middle East and swathes of Africa voted for us

World View: The decision to build a public monument is always a political act

The crisis poses huge threats but also shows us ways forward in health, housing, work and lifestyle

Covid-19 is recalibrating urban living but capitals endure as exciting laboratories

Coronavirus will cause irreversible change, but whether for good or bad is up for grabs

Seraph 100 removes viruses and bacteria with beads and may be produced in Ireland

Rich regions dithered while others, scarred by Sars and Mers, swung into containment

Pandemics require ethical and moral decisions, not just mathematical models

The effort to suppress the virus will ultimately only be a strong as its weakest link

The states best placed to fight the virus are those that prepare, plan and learn

World View: Threat posed by Covid-19 a function of social class, profession and wealth of nations

World View: In pushing for digital regulation, such firms hope to shape it in their own interests

World View: Lessons to be learned through the experience of defeated Remainers

Post-Brexit and with UN seat, Ireland could find itself wielding real clout on the world stage

World View: For Washington and Tehran hardliners, peace would be admission of defeat

The fallout from the decade of Blair and Clinton continues to shape today’s crises

The UK’s departure will force Ireland to make strategic decisions on its place in Europe

World View: Tech giants are creating new forms of power and ways of altering behaviour

Money sent home by migrants provides a lifeline to some states and props up poor communities in many others

Remain side should then shift to making the radical, positive case for rejoining

Ruadhán Mac Cormaic: In the coming months and years its contradictions will become painfully apparent

Kingdom’s support for Irish seat on UN Security Council is diplomatically tricky

Israeli premier will leave behind a deeply fractured society

Britain’s unwritten constitution badly exposed by cultural civil war

Russia has tried to hide what happened in Nenoksa but it’s impossible in the digital age

World View: Suggestion that likes of US, Australia offer alternative to EU is fantasy

Takeover by politicians in recent decades has weakened European Commission

Poised to take helm at ECB, French role model has talent for right place at right time

Irish politicians went against UK in voting for Russia’s return to Europe’s human rights watchdog

World View: Government is remarkably reticent about its move to send forces to Mali

World View: Far-right populists have quietly shelved their EU exit policies amid Brexit

Nationalists are expected to do well in the European election but their ability to coalesce is doubtful

The economy may be prospering but the country is no closer to addressing its fundamental tensions

A cold snap in Chicago in January drew more commentary

Unlike in 2011, the Bouteflika regime cannot simply throw money at the problem

World View: The UK's decision to revoke the 19-year-old's citizenship is morally flawed and legally dubious

The media enjoys a very close, if not too close, relationship with politicians

In an EU of 27, France and Germany have less room for manoeuvre than they once enjoyed

These policy ideas are starting points in a long-term strategy to eliminate child poverty

Trump’s chaotic plans are counterproductive but he is right to try to disengage

Brexit activated, Trump unshackled, populism bedded in – it’s a glass-half-empty outlook

World View: Remain side is still failing to sell its case despite possibility of a second referendum

Some of his fears about the durability of US democracy have been realised

Transactional logic must link with linguistics as State courts French-speaking nations

As the US supreme court turns inward, the rest of the world is in turn paying less attention to it

World View: Paris at last starts to face up to state’s torture and murder in Algerian war

Ruadhán Mac Cormaic: We can learn a lot from the Pacific nation’s fate in the 1970s

Diplomat was last secretary general to seem like a central player in international drama

‘Getting to Zero’ starkly reveals local valour in face of West’s superficial aid

A guide to how Ireland can secure a Security Council seat, and what we need to avoid