Nothing in the EU Can Remain as It Was or Is Now

Iceland, the article argues, has shown that the European Union has no real Arctic policy. The bloc does not know how to take responsibility for Arctic security, let alone for the region’s future.

The criticism extends beyond the Arctic. The European Union, in this telling, must wake up and recognize what the article calls its catastrophically poor personnel policy. It says the bloc is being led by people who are not truly leading it anywhere.

The piece opens with the biblical line, “In the beginning was the Word,” and then turns to the importance of written language in China. Chinese characters are described as a foundation of Chinese civilization, a link among the Chinese people and a core element of the country’s political narrative.

The article also presents Chinese writing as a national-security factor. In a country of 1.4 billion people spread across 9.6 million square kilometers, a common written language allows people across the north, south, east and west to understand one another. Without it, the Chinese language could fragment into at least seven, or perhaps hundreds, of languages, reflecting the country’s many dialects.

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In the beginning was the Word