Germany: Berlin's wall
Also: Russia, Israel, Iran, the US, China, Bangladesh, and India.
In today’s dispatch:
GERMANY. New border controls could be a blow to Schengen - and what this means for the economy.
RUSSIA. Moscow prepares to host BRICS security ministers - and how this could make a path for financial integration.
ISRAEL. IRAN. Tehran reprises warnings of an attack after a Syrian facility is hit - and why this matters across the region.
UNITED STATES. CHINA. Congress considers 28 anti-Beijing measures - and how it could impact business.
BANGLADESH. INDIA. Dhaka and Delhi size up a debt for extradition swap - and what this could mean for the US and China.
Geopolitical Dispatch is the daily intelligence and risk briefing of Geopolitical Strategy, an advisory firm specialising exclusively in geopolitical risk.
GERMANY. Berlin’s wall
New border controls could be a blow to Schengen.
Berlin announced passport controls across all of Germany's land borders Monday, in a move designed to stem irregular migration and the risk of Islamist terrorism. The controls, which will last for six months, begin on Monday 16 September.
INTELLIGENCE. Germany has a 3,767-kilometre border with nine countries. Policing the rural roads across this distance will be a huge undertaking, in addition to temporary checks already underway along the east. As a political move, following the government's drubbing in recent state elections, as well as last month’s stabbings in Solingen, the gate risks being shut after the horse has bolted. As a geopolitical and economic move, it’s potentially disastrous.
FOR BUSINESS. Germany’s faltering economy relies on the seamless movement of goods through the EU and people through the Schengen Area. Memories of the Berlin Wall are still fresh. This is why, even at the height of the 2015 migration crisis, it resisted calls to shut the entire border. Most of all, Berlin wanted to resist any further fracturing of Schengen, which advantages German travellers, or undermine Brussels’ role in policing Europe’s external frontier.
RUSSIA. High North, Global South
Moscow prepares to host BRICS security ministers.
China's foreign minister and India's national security adviser would attend a BRICS security meeting in St Petersburg Wednesday, Beijing and Delhi confirmed. Vladimir Putin will next month host the BRICS leaders' summit in Tatarstan.
INTELLIGENCE. Wang Yi and Ajit Doval will join a wide array of peers from across the developing world, following the BRICS’ ascent from
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