Are spheres of influence making a comeback on the international stage?

euronews (in English)

Are spheres of influence making a comeback on the international stage?    While the concept lost some of its relevance at the end of the Cold War, it is back in the spotlight with the return of Donald Trump and the war in Ukraine.   READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/03/24/are-spheres-of-influence-making-a-comeback-on-the-international-stage  Subscribe to our channel. Euronews is available on Dailymotion in 12 languages

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00:00for economic security. The Panama Canal was built for a military.

00:05Are spheres of influence making a comeback on the international stage?

00:09The concept lost some of its relevance at the end of the Cold War

00:14but seems to be regaining traction with the return of Donald Trump to the White

00:17House and the war in Ukraine. According to this expert it's in

00:21Europe's interest to prevent the formation of exclusive spheres of

00:24influence. The immediate threat of a sphere of

00:28influence is that you cut others off from

00:33resources and trade. And certainly for Europe this is a

00:36problem because we are an export economy and we

00:40need to import most of our resources. If you would get

00:44the general race to establish spheres of influence then you would see great

00:47powers trying to convince or even to coerce

00:50other states to join their side. That would certainly

00:54increase geopolitical tensions and ultimately it could trigger

00:58conflict. Russia, China and the United States are trying to gain ground.

01:04The US has threatened to annex Greenland and Canada

01:07but this is about territorial expansion not spheres of influence

01:11says Biskop. So Russia is definitely trying to establish an exclusive sphere

01:16of influence by military means and it's near abroad.

01:21China is is very smartly gaining lots of influence

01:25across the world but mostly through an economic

01:28and political strategy. But that could only become an exclusive sphere of

01:32influence if other players including the European

01:35Union would abandon those countries to China. But that's not happening.

01:43For the EU enlargement is a means of promoting its values.

01:47It's not about a sphere of influence. So the European Union is of course

01:52increasing its power and influence by enlarging. But

01:55enlargement is not creating a sphere of influence. If

01:58another state joins the union it becomes part of us.

02:03A sphere of influence would be around ourselves, would not be part

02:06of ourselves. A sphere of influence refers to a geographical area that a

02:11power has unilaterally declared to be its exclusive space

02:16and over which it exercises political, economic and military control.

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