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Tony Barber

European affairs commentator

Tony Barber is Europe Editor of the Financial Times. He is a former foreign correspondent in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Poland, the former Soviet Union, the US and the former Yugoslavia.

Email Tony Barber @TonyBarber8 (link opens in a new browser window)
Email Tony Barber @TonyBarber8 (link opens in a new browser window)

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  • Tuesday, 16 February, 2021
    Special ReportLuxembourg: Data and Innovation
    Luxembourg’s grand plan for an advanced digital society

    One of Europe’s smallest states has big ambitions to back private-sector innovation with government-led research. Can it succeed?

  • Monday, 15 February, 2021
    Geopolitics
    Germany’s bridges to Russia split open Europe

    Outreach to Moscow risks ignoring the concerns of central and eastern EU countries

  • Thursday, 11 February, 2021
    ReviewFT Books Essay
    What pagans, Putin and the Volga teach us about Russia

    A mighty river and nationalist myths loom large in these two fascinating history books by Janet M Hartley and Mark Galeotti

  • Tuesday, 2 February, 2021
    French politics
    The culture of silence that abets child abuse

    Scandals in France and beyond show how crime hides behind power and fame

  • Sunday, 24 January, 2021
    Populism in Europe
    Europe’s far right is often its own worst enemy

    Anti-establishment populists in the Netherlands and Estonia are on the back foot

  • Monday, 18 January, 2021
    ReviewHistory books
    Blood and Iron by Katja Hoyer — conflicted Germany

    Born out of war, the empire forged by Bismarck struggled to find peace with itself

  • Saturday, 16 January, 2021
    Instant InsightChristian Democratic Union Germany
    Merkel’s centrist legacy hangs over the new CDU leader

    Important questions remain about how the party will fight September’s Bundestag elections

  • Thursday, 14 January, 2021
    Italian politics
    Political intrigue snarls Italy as fateful choices loom

    Leaders should focus on making the best use of the EU recovery fund

  • Tuesday, 29 December, 2020
    Russian politics
    A bleak year looms for Russian dissenters

    Western support for civil society must be carefully calibrated

  • Promoted Content
  • Monday, 14 December, 2020
    ObituaryJohn le Carré
    John le Carré, author, 1931-2020

    Writer of exquisite spy novels who probed the ethical boundaries of espionage and empire

  • Friday, 11 December, 2020
    ReviewHistory books
    A deep dive into Europe’s 20th-century history

    Dominique Reill and Paul Betts enhance our understanding of the era with books on postwar life and the Fiume crisis

  • Thursday, 3 December, 2020
    Terrorism in Germany
    Germany wakes up to the far-right terror threat

    New government measures aim to combat violent extremism

  • Thursday, 19 November, 2020
    Eastern Europe
    Defiant women take on ageing autocrats and machine politicians

    Female leaders and activists spearhead change in central and eastern Europe

  • Thursday, 19 November, 2020
    FT SeriesBest Books of the Year 2020
    Best books of 2020: History

    Tony Barber selects his must-read titles 

  • Friday, 6 November, 2020
    ObituaryRobert Fisk
    Robert Fisk, foreign correspondent and author, 1946-2020

    An intrepid, polemical reporter who made his career in the Middle East

  • Tuesday, 3 November, 2020
    Special ReportWorld Economy
    Europe’s prospects depend on more than beating the pandemic

    Eurozone leaders must tackle reforms such as a capital markets union and digitalisation

  • Monday, 2 November, 2020
    Georgia
    Great power rivalry hots up in the south Caucasus

    Winner of Georgia’s elections appears opposed to big western investments

  • Thursday, 29 October, 2020
    ReviewFT Books Essay
    Is it time to strike back at empire?

    As Black Lives Matter confronts colonialism, historians are reassessing older, more benign accounts of imperial rule

  • Thursday, 22 October, 2020
    European Union
    Double standards on corruption bode ill for the EU

    Centre-right parties protect Bulgaria despite widespread graft and worries about €750bn fund

  • Friday, 9 October, 2020
    Catholic Church
    Power struggles entangle the Vatican

    Battlegrounds are alleged financial crimes, sexual abuse scandals and Pope Francis’s reform efforts

  • Sunday, 4 October, 2020
    EU immigration
    EU’s new migrant ‘pact’ is as squalid as its refugee camps

    Governments need to share responsibility for asylum seekers, beyond merely ejecting the unwanted

  • Thursday, 1 October, 2020
    ReviewHistory books
    The Hitler Conspiracies — why are Nazi myths flourishing?

    Richard J Evans’s book demolishes the myth of Hitler’s postwar life in South America and other Nazi theories

  • Tuesday, 22 September, 2020
    Instant InsightItalian politics
    Italy experiments with a smaller parliament

    More institutional reforms will be needed to make a success of the initiative

  • Tuesday, 25 August, 2020
    Russian politics
    Poison is the crudest way to repress dissent in Russia

    Alleged attack on Alexei Navalny may prove a political miscalculation but it is unlikely to backfire on the perpetrators

  • Tuesday, 18 August, 2020
    Belarus
    Belarus sheds the carapace of dictatorship

    Mass protests in support of freedom are neither anti-Russian nor pro-western

Previous You are on page 1 Next

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