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February 15, 2025

Hi, everybody. I’m Judah Grunstein, WPR’s editor-in-chief, and this is a free preview of our Weekly Review newsletter, which recaps the highlights from our coverage this week and previews what we have planned for next week.

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Top Stories

This week, in our Daily Review newsletter, we took a look at the week’s major developments:

Austria: Coalition talks led by the far-right Freedom Party, or FPO, officially collapsed after negotiations with the conservative People’s Party, or OVP, reached an impasse. The collapse makes the FPO the latest far-right party in Europe to reach the cusp of power, only to come up short on leading the government. Outside of Italy, far-right parties have largely been excluded from governments, even despite center-right parties’ increasing willingness to work with them in a number of countries, including the Netherlands, Spain, France and, now, Austria. These decisions by mainstream parties have not been without backlash and controversy, but they still underscore how the stigma against working with the far right is weakening. (Read more here.) War in Ukraine: U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday he had a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin that signaled the start of negotiations to end the war in Ukraine. The call marks a substantive shift in the West’s position since Russia’s invasion three years ago that nothing about Ukraine be decided without Ukraine. Evidently, Trump envisions a very different framework for peace talks, involving direct contact between the U.S. and Russia. To some extent, that framework reflects a more realist appraisal of the underlying strategic situation, but it still marks a major blow for Kyiv and Zelenskyy. (Read more here.) African Union: Leaders of African states are meeting this weekend for the annual AU summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where they will choose new members of the organization’s commission, including a new chair. The summit comes at a time of great challenges for the AU and African states. Most immediately, a number of conflicts are taking place across the continent that have no real short-term prospects for resolution or off-ramps. The AU also faces a growing crisis of legitimacy affecting multilateral organizations across the continent, and the next AU chair is also being chosen at a time when the global landscape is shifting toward multipolarity, competing blocs and trade protectionism. At the same time, though, the shifting global landscape also presents an opportunity for African states and the Global South more generally. Having effective leadership in multilateral organizations like the AU will go a long way in seizing those opportunities. (Read more here.)

This Week’s Highlights

Argentina’s Milei Is Giving the IMF a Run for Its Money. On Monday, James Bosworth examined how Argentine President Javier Milei is posing a unique challenge to the International Monetary fund.

Milei has flipped the script on the international organization that is the lender of last resort for countries in crisis. Usually, the IMF demands economic reforms and budget cuts. However, as it currently negotiates with its largest debtor, the IMF faces a country and a leader engaging in radical reforms that are moving faster than seems safe politically or economically. Argentina owes the IMF more than $40 billion, accounting for over a quarter of the organization’s total lending, and the organization thinks Milei’s pro-market moves may go a step too far. Upgrade to a paid subscription to get the full bulleted breakdown of the stories we highlight each week.

France’s Military Exit Doesn’t Signal a Split With Cote d’Ivoire. And on Wednesday, Jessica Moody looked at what the forced withdrawal of French troops from Cote d’Ivoire means for the two countries’ future relations.

On New Year’s Eve, Ivoirian President Alassane Ouattara announced that around 1,000 French troops based in Cote d’Ivoire would begin leaving the country in January, and that Cote d’Ivoire’s own, modernized armed forces would subsequently take full responsibility for the country’s security. The announcement did not look good for France, especially as it came on the heels of several similar withdrawals and evictions in the region in the previous months. In November, for instance, both Chad and Senegal had announced the imminent withdrawal of French forces from their countries. And that had followed forced French withdrawals from Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. Upgrade to a paid subscription to get the full bulleted breakdown of the stories we highlight each week.

This Week’s Most-Read Story

Civil Society Is Mobilizing Against Trump’s Lawlessness at Home and Abroad. And in this week’s top story by pageviews, columnist Charli Carpenter looked at how domestic and foreign civil society organizations are starting to push back against U.S. President Donald Trump’s blistering shake-up of the federal bureaucracy in violation of the Constitution’s separation of powers:

But the more serious forms of resistance to the Trump administration’s effort to foreclose the normal functioning of government may be coming from domestic and transnational civil society rather than from elected opposition leaders. Though the media has been slow to focus on the actions of ordinary citizens, many have already been mobilizing to resist the second Trump administration in the sorts of ways that citizens around the world have often used to successfully hold authoritarianism at bay.

What’s On Tap

And coming up next week, we’ve got:

A briefing by Saskia Brechenmacher and Margot Treadwell on the prospects for U.S. media freedom under Trump. A briefing by Matthew Cebul and Rana Khoury on Syrian civil society’s role in post-Assad reconstruction. And a briefing by Idean Salehyan on the polarization of U.S. refugee resettlement policy.

That’s it for this week. And if you have any comments or feedback, just hit reply to send them along, or contact me on BlueSky at @judah-grunstein.bksy.social.

—Judah Grunstein

This Week On WPR:

Africa

The Conflict in Congo Has Rekindled Rwanda-South Africa Tensions By Chris Olaoluwa Ògúnmọ́dẹdé M23’s rapid offensive in eastern Congo has rekindled tensions in the already fraught relationship between Rwanda and South Africa. France’s Military Exit Doesn’t Signal a Split With Cote d’Ivoire By Jessica Moody It’s tempting to conflate France’s military exit from Cote d’Ivoire with its withdrawals from other regional countries. But there are key differences.

The Americas

Argentina’s Milei Is Giving the IMF a Run for Its Money By James Bosworth Argentine President Javier Milei is forcing the IMF to decide whether it is willing to put its money where its mouth is. The IMF is likely to blink first. Ecuador’s Presidential Election Is Inflaming Its Polarization Problem By Mie Hoejris Dahl Incumbent President Daniel Noboa will face Luisa Gonzalez in Ecuador’s April runoff election. Their agendas are polar opposites.

Europe

In a Bid for Trump’s Support, Zelenskyy Shifts to Dealmaking By Amanda Coakley In an effort to shore up support for U.S. aid, Zelenskyy put Ukraine’s vast rare earth reserves on the table. It’s a deal Trump seems to like.

United States

Trump Is More Symptom Than Cause of the Twilight of U.S. Hegemony By Paul Poast Despite his best efforts, Trump can only steer U.S. global leadership in the direction it was already going: down. Civil Society Is Mobilizing Against Trump’s Lawlessness at Home and Abroad By Charli Carpenter The most serious forms of resistance to Trump’s efforts to foreclose the normal functioning of government are coming from ordinary citizens. Trump Is Scrapping a Key U.S. Advantage Over China By Frida Ghitis The U.S. has spent decades building up goodwill and influence around the world. In tarnishing U.S. soft power, Trump is throwing it all out.

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