To return the US to the global stage, Biden must first strengthen the country’s domestic foundations.

After four years of “America First” policies under Donald Trump, President Biden has pledged to return the US to a position of leadership on the world stage. Charles A. Kupchan and Peter Trubowitz write that to accomplish this, Biden will first need to rebuild popular support for internationalism at home through programs to support US workers affected by trade, improving living standards, and by redoubling his administration’s commitment to social justice and political rights

A China strategy to reunite America’s allies

China’s autocratic ways and its strategic ambition are prompting the world’s democracies to band together against it. As the European Union’s recent decision to sign an investment accord with China makes clear, China’s geopolitical heft and the allure of Chinese trade and investment are tempting many to curry favor with it. But, write Charles A. Kupchan and Peter Trubowitz, acting unilaterally, as President Donald Trump did – and as the EU is now doing – only plays to China’s strength by diluting the collective bargaining power of the world’s democracies

Paradoxes of European Foreign Policy. From the European Union to the Atlantic Union

Digitised version produced by the EUI Library and made available online in 2020

DNA adducts of aristolochic acid II: total synthesis and site-specific mutagenesis studies in mammalian cells

Aristolochic acids I and II (AA-I, AA-II) are found in all Aristolochia species. Ingestion of these acids either in the form of herbal remedies or as contaminated wheat flour causes a dose-dependent chronic kidney failure characterized by renal tubulointerstitial fibrosis. In ∼50% of these cases, the condition is accompanied by an upper urinary tract malignancy. The disease is now termed aristolochic acid nephropathy (AAN). AA-I is largely responsible for the nephrotoxicity while both AA-I and AA-II are genotoxic. DNA adducts derived from AA-I and AA-II have been isolated from renal tissues of patients suffering from AAN. We describe the total synthesis, de novo, of the dA and dG adducts derived from AA-II, their incorporation site-specifically into DNA oligomers and the splicing of these modified oligomers into a plasmid construct followed by transfection into mouse embryonic fibroblasts. Analysis of the plasmid progeny revealed that both adducts blocked replication but were still partly processed by DNA polymerase(s). Although the majority of coding events involved insertion of correct nucleotides, substantial misincorporation of bases also was noted. The dA adduct is significantly more mutagenic than the dG adduct; both adducts give rise, almost exclusively, to misincorporation of dA, which leads to AL-II-dA→T and AL-II-dG→T transversions

Revisiting Egyptian Foreign Policy towards Israel under Mubarak: From Cold Peace to Strategic Peace

This article is the first academic study of Egyptian foreign policy towards Israel under Hosni Mubarak (1981–2011). It challenges a deeply entrenched conventional wisdom that Egypt pursued a cold-peace foreign policy towards Israel throughout this period. We demonstrate that Egyptian foreign policy towards Israel was dynamic – comprising cold peace (1981–91), a hybrid foreign policy of cold peace and strategic peace (1991–2003), and a pure strategic peace posture (2003–11). We also use the case of Egyptian foreign policy towards Israel as a heuristic to develop a conception of a new type of peace, strategic peace, as an intermediary analytical category between cold and stable peace