本週封面故事|特朗普的權力遊戲與烏克蘭的背叛

寫在前面

1.重點單詞、片語以及固定搭配

bumper edition – 重磅特輯

dubious distinction – 尷尬的殊榮

whirlwind month – 旋風式執政月

Iron Curtain – 鐵幕

raptor-like talons – 猛禽般的利爪

ceasefi re – 停火協議

long-standing policy – 長期國策

exposed to aggression – 暴露於威脅之下

nothingburger meeting – 毫無實質的會晤

geopolitical benefi t – 地緣政治利益

dedication to diplomacy – 外交承諾

dominance negotiation – 主導權爭奪

brazenly unconstitutional – 公然違憲

plunge…into chaos – 將…推入混亂

def y the Supreme Court – 違抗最高法院

constitutional crisis – 憲法危機

executive orders – 行政命令

trial of strength – 權力博弈

take a moment to digest – 需要時間理解

2.文章概述：

本期封面故事首先回顧了《經濟學人》封面設計比賽的獲獎作品，並介紹了評選過程及獲獎者的創意。隨後，文章聚焦特朗普政府對烏克蘭的政策轉變，指出特朗普在歐洲版封面因“背叛烏克蘭”而登上頭條，同時在其他地區版封面因其執政首月的激進政策受到關注。文中批評特朗普與普京接近的外交策略削弱了北約威懾力，使歐洲安全域性勢惡化。此外，文章探討了特朗普透過行政命令削弱立法和司法權力，可能引發憲政危機的風險。最後，文章強調了美國政策變化對烏克蘭及國際秩序的深遠影響。

Cover Story

封面故事

How we chose this week’s image

我們如何選擇本週的圖片

Welcome to a bumper edition of Cover Story. Today we announce the winners of our competition to design an Economist cover.

But first let’s talk about this week. Though we publish the same editorials everywhere, we often feature different covers in different editions. I have written for The Economist for many years, yet I cannot think of a time when the same person has appeared on the cover of more than one edition in a single issue. This week that dubious distinction belongs to Donald Trump—for what is shaping up to be a betrayal of Ukraine (our cover in Europe) and to mark his first whirlwind month in power (our cover everywhere else).

This past week strikes us as the bleakest in Europe since the fall of the Iron Curtain. Ukraine is being sold out, Russia is being rehabilitated and, under Mr Trump, America can no longer be counted on to come to Europe’s aid in wartime.

Here is the dove of peace, with blood dripping from its raptor-like talons. It’s sufficiently vicious and depressing, but Europe’s worst nightmare is even bigger than a bad Russo-Ukrainian ceasefire.

Without any obvious geopolitical benefit to America, Mr Trump has ditched a long-standing policy to isolate Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin. Mr Trump’s readiness to trade everything away leaves Europe dangerously exposed to any future aggression from the east.

This shredded European Union flag focuses on that bigger picture. Deterrence rests on the certainty that if one member of NATO is attacked, the rest will come to its aid. That certainty is gone. The problem is not that Uncle Sam’s priorities lie in Asia. The problem is that if Europe were ever to seek American help, Mr Trump’s first and deepest instinct would be to ask what is in it for him—and Mr Putin knows it.

We wanted an image that combined Ukraine’s abandonment with Europe’s peril and this is where we ended up. During covid-19, the physical distance between Mr Putin and his interlocutors, imposed by his enormous table in the Kremlin, was a metaphor for his isolation. Now the leader of the free world has chosen to join him. The empty chairs are a reminder of all of the people who have been kept out of the room. In our final image we gave Mr Trump a notebook—not because we think he is the sort of person to write things down, but to show who we think is calling the shots.

In office for just a month, Mr Trump has made his base exultant and left his opponents reeling. He is trying to turn the presidency into the dominant branch of government. The question is how far his campaign goes before he is checked—if he is checked—and where it will leave the republic.

We started with Mr Trump’s Sharpie causing a minor earthquake. The president is ignoring the legislature and is governing by decree. He has asserted that he can withhold money allocated by Congress, which would rob it of its most important power. Because a selection of Mr Trump’s 70 or so executive orders are, on the face of it, brazenly unconstitutional, he also appears to be seeking a trial of strength with the judiciary.

As well as being hard to decipher, the Sharpie is too limited. Mr Trump is also laying waste to the bureaucracy and to decades of foreign policy. His every act demonstrates his belief that power is vested in him personally and affirms that he is bent on amassing more.

To get at that idea, we have razed Washington to the ground. The White House is the only institution still standing. This is good, but we felt that it would be odd for our cover to omit the man at the heart of it all.

The great fear among Mr Trump’s critics is that he is frogmarching their country into a constitutional crisis, or even an autocracy. During his inauguration the constitution was something Mr Trump swore to serve; but here it is a serviette. He has spilled some ketchup down his front: remaking America is a messy business.

This was better, though. We tried it without words, but that made it seem as if we thought Mr Trump had already seized the crown.

That is true in foreign policy—as this week’s Europe cover shows. But at home the president is still far from overturning America’s constitutional order. In a federal system where states have rights, and most citizens and investors still believe in the rule of law, the courts are powerful, even if they move slowly.

If Mr Trump defied the Supreme Court, he would trigger a constitutional crisis and a fight among officials, voters and financial markets over the future of the republic. Perhaps the voters currently endorsing Mr Trump’s first month would not care about that. But do not bet on it.

And now to our competition. On January 11th we asked you to come up with a cover design and a title for our editorial on the wonder of Ozempic and other GLP1-receptor agonists. You can read it here. We received 160 entries.

With Ben Shmulevitch, our cover-art director, and Stephen Petch, our creative director, I have looked at all of them. Last week we selected a shortlist of seven. Here are our three winners.

“All in one drugs” by Felipe de Souza was one of many designs that sought to transform the injection-pen into something else, such as a rocket or a key. Here it is a lighthouse, splitting a single beam of light into all the colours of the rainbow—an enduring symbol of hope.

“All for one one for all” by Sebastian Castro turned the pen into a sword, which was satisfying in itself. Mr Castro was not the only designer to think of the Three Musketeers. But we admired his artwork and typesetting.

Our third winner is “Improving lives” by Ary Moraes, which stood out for its execution and humour. This entry was also your favourite, winning by almost 400 votes. Successful covers often take a moment to understand: there is something satisfying about that moment when the penny drops and you see Achilles’ heel healed.

Congratulations to our three winners, who will each receive a copy of our Cover Story album for 2024. And thank you to everyone who entered. We enjoyed looking over your work. We hope that those who didn’t win will still dip into the album. You can find a digital version here.

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