Manuel Langendorf is a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, based in London, where he is working on digitisation and the digital economy in the Middle East, with a special focus on the United Arab Emirates and Jordan as well as Europe's interests in the issue.
Langendorf has been a frequent contributor to The Arab Weekly newspaper and other media outlets. He was the editor-in-chief of The World Weekly, an award-winning international news magazine, and has appeared numerous times on television to comment on Middle Eastern affairs. He holds an MSc in International Politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London.
Latest from
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Flash Scorecard
Independence play: Europe’s pursuit of strategic autonomy
by Ulrike Esther Franke & Tara Varma - 18th July, 2019
To fulfil its true potential, the EU needs to end its strategic cacophony and focus on capability building
Policy Brief
Strategic sovereignty: How Europe can regain the capacity to act
by Mark Leonard & Jeremy Shapiro - 25th June, 2019
The EU needs to learn to think like a geopolitical power.
PDF
An unprecedented setback for Orbán: Hungary’s municipal elections (Commentary)
Zsuzsanna Végh - 18 October 2019
The Orbán government will likely fuel conflict with newly appointed opposition mayors, taking every chance to portray them as incompetent.
How to deal with our Western Balkan neighbours?
North Macedonia and Albania wanted to start negotiations with the EU after having been candidate countries since 2005 and 2014. But the enlargement plans seemed to have stalled especially after opposition from France.
Host Mark Leonard is joined by Susi Dennison, José Ignacio Torreblanca and Vessela Tcherneva to get to the bottom of things and the divisions particularly between France and Germany on this issue.The podcast as recorded on 17 October 2019.
Bookshelf:
- "The Age of Surveillance Capitalism" by Shoshana Zuboff
- "Spring" by Ali Smith
- "The light that failed" by Ivan Krastev & Stephen Holmes
- "State of the Union" Miniseries on BBC Two
The authoritarian entente: Sino-Russian security cooperation (Commentary)
Gustav Gressel - 17 October 2019
Sino-Russian arrangements for deepening cooperation on surveillance technology codify a process that has been going on for years.
Another fine mess: Syria after the US exit (Commentary)
Asli Aydıntaşbaş & Julien Barnes-Dacey & Jeremy Shapiro - 16 October 2019
Turkey’s invasion means Europeans can no longer be bystanders to Syria. They must now take three urgent steps.
European foreign fighters in Syria: The cost of inaction (Commentary)
Anthony Dworkin - 15 October 2019
Repatriation remains the most effective way for EU member states to assess each case, prosecute jihadists where necessary, and interrogate returnees to learn more about ISIS methods and plans.
Poland after the election: New headaches for the EU (Commentary)
Piotr Buras - 15 October 2019
The freshly re-elected Law and Justice party will now be more emboldened than ever in its dealings with Brussels.
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Strategic sovereignty: How Europe can regain the capacity to act
by Mark Leonard, Jeremy Shapiro - 25th June, 2019
The EU needs to learn to think like a geopolitical power.
PDF
False moves: Migration and development aid
by Shoshana Fine, Susi Dennison, Richard Gowan - 08th October, 2019
Europe should not confuse development aid’s role in reducing forced migration with that of reducing migration more broadly
PDF
The instinctive multilateralist: Portugal and the politics of cooperation
by Susi Dennison and Lívia Franco - 02nd October, 2019
The Portuguese hope that the EU can help them tackle the challenges of globalisation: from climate change to cooperation on the impact of freedom of movement
PDF.jpg "Pic: Shutterstock.com / By Sergei Chuzavkov - https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/kyiv-ukraine-april-5-2019-ukrainian-1373714396?src=yjD14WHqySlOn7_CC897XA-1-9 - ©")
Zelensky unchained: What Ukraine’s new political order means for its future
by Joanna Hosa, Andrew Wilson - 25th September, 2019
Three crises and an opportunity: Europe’s stake in multilateralism
by Richard Gowan & Anthony Dworkin - 05th September, 2019
Despite the existing crises to the multilateral system, the EU possesses a set of specific strengths needed to actually save the system.
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An unprecedented setback for Orbán: Hungary’s municipal elections (Commentary)
Zsuzsanna Végh - 18 October 2019
The Orbán government will likely fuel conflict with newly appointed opposition mayors, taking every chance to portray them as incompetent.
The authoritarian entente: Sino-Russian security cooperation (Commentary)
Gustav Gressel - 17 October 2019
Sino-Russian arrangements for deepening cooperation on surveillance technology codify a process that has been going on for years.
Another fine mess: Syria after the US exit (Commentary)
Asli Aydıntaşbaş & Julien Barnes-Dacey & Jeremy Shapiro - 16 October 2019
Turkey’s invasion means Europeans can no longer be bystanders to Syria. They must now take three urgent steps.
European foreign fighters in Syria: The cost of inaction (Commentary)
Anthony Dworkin - 15 October 2019
Repatriation remains the most effective way for EU member states to assess each case, prosecute jihadists where necessary, and interrogate returnees to learn more about ISIS methods and plans.
Poland after the election: New headaches for the EU (Commentary)
Piotr Buras - 15 October 2019
The freshly re-elected Law and Justice party will now be more emboldened than ever in its dealings with Brussels.
Germany at the helm: Can it bring Europe together in 2020? (Commentary)
André Hein - 15 October 2019
The German presidency offers the chance to build on strong levels of structural cohesion between member states – but citizens remain sceptical on some fronts.
The real battle for Poland’s future (Commentary)
Pawel Zerka & Piotr Buras - 11 October 2019
Jaroslaw Kaczynski promises the ‘Polish model of the welfare state’ and social protection like in the West - but if his party stays in power after the October 13 election, the country will drift further away from its hard-won freedoms and connections with Europe
Iraq after the “October protests”: A different country (Commentary)
Hussein Dawood - 11 October 2019
Popular protests are no new phenomenon in Iraq. But this latest round may transform both the government and the country.
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How to deal with our Western Balkan neighbours?
North Macedonia and Albania wanted to start negotiations with the EU after having been candidate countries since 2005 and 2014. But the enlargement plans seemed to have stalled especially after opposition from France.
Host Mark Leonard is joined by Susi Dennison, José Ignacio Torreblanca and Vessela Tcherneva to get to the bottom of things and the divisions particularly between France and Germany on this issue.The podcast as recorded on 17 October 2019.
Bookshelf:
- "The Age of Surveillance Capitalism" by Shoshana Zuboff
- "Spring" by Ali Smith
- "The light that failed" by Ivan Krastev & Stephen Holmes
- "State of the Union" Miniseries on BBC Two
Europe with no cards to play: Erdoğan, Trump, and Europe's weaknesses
Turkey's offensive into northeast Syria is moving at an unprecedented pace with grave consequences. Europe's utter irrelevance in the face of US withdrawal from the Turkish/Syrian border has been thrown in to stark light, particularly as it fails to take responsibility for European Isis members in the region. Europes weakness on migration and the refugee crisis as a whole has also been highlighted. What can and should Europe do at this crisis point? As events unfold, Asli Aydıntaşbaş, senior policy fellow with the Wider Europe programme joins host Mark Leonard from Turkey. Mark is also joined by head of ECFR's MENA programme, Julien Barnes-Dacey. Jeremy Shapiro, our research director, provides insight into Trump and Erdoğan's relationship breakdown and what US foreign policy under Trump may continue to look like.
This podcast was recorded on 10 October 2019.
Bookshelf:
"The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in the Middle East, 1914-1920" By Eugene Rogan
"The Noise of Time" by Julien Barnes
"Chimera" by Alexandros Yannis
Details of the text message sent by a No.10 source to the Spectator_kremlin.jpg?v=1570437912218)
Reaching out to Russia – joining hands or getting the mitten?
In this week’s podcast, Mark Leonard, Gustav Gressel and Kadri Liik analyse Macron’s plans and ideas for recreating the European security order, an initiative which he launched with a speech at the Ambassador’s conference this year. Moreover, according to French officials, France will instead of starting with a top-down plan, try to build European security from the bottom-up and see if there is a desire in Moscow to make progress on specific issues, one brick at a time. They have laid out a roadmap with five different areas: Disarmament, security dialogue, crisis management, values, and common projects.
Further read: “Emmanuel Macron’s very big idea on Russia” by Gustav Gressel, Kadri Liik, Jeremy Shapiro & Tara VarmaThe podcast was recorded on 30 September 2019.
Bookshelf:
David McAllister on how MEPs will quiz the next Commissioners
Mark Leonard welcomes a very special guest, David McAllister MEP to the podcast, talking about the process of doing all the hearing for the European Commission over the next weeks. Additionally, David McAllister gives his view on Europe on the world stage and his vision of European foreign policy.
The podcast was recorded on 25 September 2019.
Bookshelf:
Livestream to the hearings: www.europarl.europa.eu/ep-live/en/schedule
Three crises and an opportunity: Europe’s stake in multilateralism
The multilateral system faces three related crises of power, relevance, and legitimacy. This fraying consensus threatens the EU, which is committed to multilateralism. But the situation also represents an opportunity for European influence! Mark Leonard discusses Europe's stake on multilateralism with the ECFR experts Richard Gowan and Anthony Dworkin.
The podcast was recorded on 19 September 2019.
Bookshelf:
Von der Leyen's EU Commission: Picks for a Union that strives for more
Mark Leonard is meeting his ECFR colleagues, Tara Varma, Piotr Buras and Teresa Coratello in Berlin to go through the newly selected EU Commission. What have been surprises, disappointments and challenges in von der Leyen's new cabinet? And what role did geopolitics play during the selection process?
This podcast was recorded on 10 September 2019.
Read von der Leyen's Vision Statement here:
Bookshelf:
Meddling or Bargaining? - Emmanuel Macron's Iran Initiative
This week, ECFR director Mark Leonard discusses with experts Ellie Geranmayeh and Julien Barnes-Dacey the French president Emmanuel Macron's bold initiative: Europeans are now to explore a credit line for Iran to entice the sanctions-battered country to keep abiding by an international nuclear deal. But the US and president Trump are sceptical.
Bookshelf:
- "Crashed" by Adam Tooze
- "21 Lessons for the 21st Century" by Yuval Harari
- "Eric Hobsbawm: A Life in History" by Richard J. Evans
The podcast was recorded on 6 September 2019.
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Independence Play: Europe's Pursuit of Strategic Autonomy
In the final episode of our special summer series on European strategic sovereignty, regular host Mark Leonard is joined by two of ECFR’s own experts: research director Jeremy Shapiro and Senior Policy Fellow and head of the Paris office Tara Varma. Topic of discussion is research led by Ulrike Franke and Tara Varma looking at how Europeans from all of the different EU member states see strategic autonomy. Is the idea of strategic sovereignty owned by the French? If it is, does French ownership pose a problem for the acceptance of the idea? What is the military component of European strategic sovereignty? What role is there for the UK after Brexit? These are some of the questions they discuss.
The paper that is referred to can be found here: https://www.ecfr.eu/specials/scorecard/independence_play_europes_pursuit_of_strategic_autonomy
This podcast was recorded on Friday, August 30, 2019.
Picture retrieved from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Emmanuel_Macron_and_Angela_Merkel_(Frankfurter_Buchmesse_2017).jpg
Public domain.
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Financial Times
16th October, 2019
Rachman discusses on his podcast the similarities between the Brexit and Trump phenomena and America's shrinking role on the global stage, with Jeremy Shapiro among others.
Politico
15th October, 2019
Ulrike Franke comments on Turkey invasion of Syria and the likelihood of NATO involvement
The Irish Times
14th October, 2019
Piotr Buras is cited in the Irish Times on PiS entrenchment following the Polish elections
VICE
14th October, 2019
Pawel Zerka and Piotr Buras speak to VICE on the outcome of the Polish elections
CBC Canada
13th October, 2019
Pawel Zerka is cited on the reasons for the level of support for PiS in Poland
euronews.
13th October, 2019
Piotr Buras speaks on the latest poll for the Polish parliamentary elections