The Gulf Stream Blues Podcast

Ireland took over the rotating presidency of the EU Council this week, and while here covering the launch I stopped by the Port of Cork in Cobh, formerly known as Queenstown. From here at “Heartbreak Pier”, where I’m standing in the video, my great great great grandfather Daniel Keating Jr immigrated to New York in 1860. This was the last thing in Europe he ever saw. He was escaping wretched pover...

Italian-American relations have been thrown into chaos this week after a very public spat between Donald Trump and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. But as I wrote earlier this week , this is about much more than who asked who for a selfie. This was an abrupt change of strategy not just for Meloni, a former Trump ally, but for Europe as a whole. The far-right Italian primer minister is one of...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit davekeating.substack.com On Thursday night, at the June European Council summit, EU prime ministers and presidents discussed whether they should switch to a tougher strategy on EU-China relations. Frustrations with China dumping exports into the EU market (while not allowing EU companies access to the Chinese market) have reached boilin...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit davekeating.substack.com On 4 June, Le Continent Captif , the French edition of my book The Owned Continent , was published. I’m now doing promotion rounds for the book in French (keep an eye on the events section of the website) and the first stop was a reading at Librebook multilingual bookshop in the expat-heavy Brussels neighbourhoo...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit davekeating.substack.com GLOBSEC, an annual event that combines Davos and the MSC with a focus on central Europe, took place in Prague this week. Dave Keating from Gulf Stream Blues and Julien Hoez from The French Dispatch were both there moderating panels, and in this live video they discussed their observations from the conference and...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit davekeating.substack.com In today’s Substack video I talked about the summit of EU prime ministers and presidents taking place in Cyprus today and the planned dinner discussion about the EU’s Article 42.7 inserted into the 2009 Lisbon Treaty and how it would work in practice.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit davekeating.substack.com My quick take on what yesterday’s surprise tsunami of a defeat for Viktor Orban means both in practical terms for the EU and Ukraine and in more symbolic terms for the White House’s regime change efforts in Europe.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit davekeating.substack.com Following similar threats over the past days from his secretary of state and secretary of war, Donald Trump has today said he is considering taking the United States out of NATO in retaliation for European countries not joining his war on Iran. But his words reflect a far more troubling reality than his empty th...

Donald Trump has been badgering European countries to join the Iran War now that he is losing it. But he did not consult them beforehand, and did not try to assemble a ‘coalition of the willing’ as George W. Bush did before the Iraq War. Now that he is flailing, he wants to draw Europeans into his mess. As one French general put it last week, Europeans joining this war now would be like buying a t...

Thanks to everyone who came to The Owned Continent book reading and Q&A at Librebook bookstore tonight, it was a great conversation and I was really grateful for all the thoughtful questions from the audience. The conversation was hosted by Jakob Hanke Vela, Brussels Bureau Chief for the German newspaper Handelsblatt and former author of Politico Playbook. Stay tuned to the book’s events page for...

Dave Keating from Gulf Stream Blues and Julien Hoez from The French Dispatch discussed how Macron's domestic political position might impact his decision on whether or not to send the French navy to the Strait of Hormuz. EU prime ministers are gathering in Brussels on Thursday to take stock of the global destabilisation caused by the American-Israeli war on Iran and whether they should accept Dona...

“Europe did not start this war,” Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign affairs chief, explained at last night’s press conference following a summit of foreign affairs ministers in Brussels which rejected the idea of sending ships to the Strait of Hormuz. Though she had come into the summit holding open the possibility that the EU mission of Operation Aspides which has been protecting shipping in the Red S...

Is the Iran War the point where Europeans finally say enough is enough and stop appeasing Donald Trump? Dave Keating took this and other questions at the book reading in Barcelona for his new book The Owned Continent on Mach 14 2026 at Backstory Bookshop. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit davekeating.substack.com/s...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit davekeating.substack.com Last month on 26 January, people gathered at the Full Circle theatre in Brussels for an evening of discussion, drinks, food and inspiration for how we can move forward with Europe’s independence revolution. The book launch event for The Owned Continent , hosted by Res Publica Europa , wasn’t just an opportunity...

In today’s interview with Mark Leon Goldberg on Global Dispatches we talked about why Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has zigged while all other European leaders shave zagged when it comes to how to deal with Donald Trump. We also talked about my new book The Owned Continent and why I wrote in it that Sanchez has been ostracised by other European leaders as punishment for him not toeing the E...

Thanks to everyone who came to the book reading at the Brussels Press Club tonight! Check www. TheOwnedContinent.eu for news about further book readings in Barcelona, Berlin and London, as well as an event in Brussels dedicated to the topic of English as Europe’s cultural lingua franca. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes,...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit davekeating.substack.com The optics were bad. Last night EU prime ministers and presidents were forced to trudge to Brussels, at great taxpayer expense, for a summit at which they felt obliged to praise the importance of the transatlantic relationship. Rather than brandishing the retaliatory tools that Europe possesses, the leaders decl...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit davekeating.substack.com Hey subscribers, thanks so much for all your support and the enthusiastic response to the book! It’s already sold many more copies than I was expecting since the soft launch on 8 December. I’m now in preparations for the hard launch at the event in Brussels on 26 January. We’ve been overwhelmed by the number of...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit davekeating.substack.com Maybe I was a bit too tired and cranky in my 6am Substack dispatch this morning. Yes, the optics of yesterday’s European Council are quite bad for the EU. President von der Leyen said the EU was going to deliver help to Ukraine, and in the end they couldn’t muster the political will to do it. But as I explained...

It’s out! My book The Owned Continent was published on 9 December. You can read more about it and see purchasing options here: www. TheOwnedContinent.eu . Thanks to everyone who tuned in and asked their questions. As I mentioned, there will be the big book launch event in Brussels on 26 January ( register here ) and a book reading at the Brussels Press Club on 5 February ( register here ). Click h...

Last week, the seventh prime minister to serve under French President Emmanuel Macron resigned just 18 hours after forming his government, only to be reassigned to his position by Macron four days later. French politics is now in a period of chaos unseen in the history of the Fifth Republic, and it is having major knock-on effects on the European Union. In this Substack Live, Dave Keating from Gul...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit davekeating.substack.com This week was tough to take for Britain’s left. The sight of Labour Prime Minister grovelling to President Trump on his unprecedented second state visit, even as the news reached London about MAGA’s launch of the most prolific crackdown on American free speech in history following the assassination of Charlie Ki...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit davekeating.substack.com In this Substack Live, I analysed President von der Leyen’s State of the European Union address to the EU Parliament and discussed whether it really heralds any change in strategy toward the US after the surrender summer we just witnessed. Substack posts mentioned in this video:

European leaders’ strategy of incessantly flattering Donald Trump seemed to pay off on Monday when they caught the US president in a good mood as they swarmed President Zelenskyy at his White House summit. But the question remains - what would have happened if they weren’t there? The leaders had rushed to Washington to prevent another Oval Office ambush of the Ukrainian president. Their flattery b...

The backlash in Europe against the trade war surrender signed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at Donald Trump’s golf course in Scotland on Sunday is still growing. In this Substack Live, Dave Keating from Gulf Stream Blues and Julien Hoez from The French Dispatch discussed why this is such a bad deal for Europe, how it moves this continents vassal status from being implicit t...