The countries of the European Union tend to be viewed as the main advocates at the national level for developing a more comprehensive and binding global plan to tackle climate change. As the EU pushes forward, other nations have been stuck in neutral or have been retrenching. With the European economy continuously struggling to pick […]
A Lack of Credible Opposition Candidates Has Stalled Democratic Progress Along the Black Sea Since late November, ever since Ukraine’s President, Victor Yanukovych, refused to sign an Association Agreement with the European Union, protestors have congregated in downtown Kiev, defying what they see as a blatant attempt to maintain a post-Soviet world order in a […]
Over the years, political journalism in Russia has gradually morphed into a new definition – one that blurs the line between politicized and honest journalism. Russian journalism blotched that line even more with Monday’s presidential decree to shut down the state-funded news agency, RIA Novosti, and merged it with a news outlet called Russia Today. […]
Canada and the European Union are working out the final details of their newly minted Free Trade Agreement. The first of these modern agreements will be completed with Canada in the midst of new agreements being discussed with Brazil as well as added access for Colombians and with Mercosur as a whole. The Canadian agreement […]
The Catalans are upset and, depending on whom you speak with, have been upset since being defeated by the Spanish monarchy in 1714. Now, almost three hundred years later, they are doing what many other ethnic groups throughout Europe aspire – holding a vote to become independent. Or at least show support to be independent because […]
Five years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, its reverberations are still being felt throughout the world. GDP in many wealthy countries remains well below its pre-crisis peak, and in Europe the global financial crisis has morphed into the Euro crisis. The downturn has been most pronounced along Europe’s southern coast, as countries wrestle with […]
Executive Summary
Poland has developed an ambitious plan to modernize its armed forces over the next decade. The air and missile defense initiative has certainly become a flagship project of the effort, but the modernization agenda is much broader and should be put into a clear strategic, military, economic, as well as industrial perspective. The modernization process will also not be taking place in a strategic vacuum, and will therefore lead to the creation of a new Polish strategic narrative both in NATO and the EU.
The impact of Edward Snowden’s revelations is broadening in scope. When his initial leaks appeared in late May, they were greeted as a forcing event. Whether one saw Snowden as a patriot or a traitor – he’s certainly a lawbreaker – his revelations appeared to be an attempt to bookend the changes in intelligence policy […]
In the July/August 2013 issue of Foreign Affairs, Nicolas Berggruen and Nathan Gardels outline a blueprint for moving toward a more federal European Union. Berggruen and Gardels argue that Europe’s economic future depends on a more federal union. Direct election for the EU presidency, reforming the European Parliament, and reconstituting the European Council as a […]
The struggle for positioning in the solar energy marketplace took another turn. On June 4 Karel de Gucht, the European Commissioner for Trade, announced a new 11.8 percent tariff to be applied to imported Chinese made solar panels, and photovoltaic cells and polysilicon wafers, two system components. To avoid an additional increase escalating to […]
The gesture itself was subtle, but as the collection of briefing notes were set to one side, so with it went a thin layer of pulped political barricade. What remained were two government leaders seated across a table, a Russian president asking a British prime minister to state his case. David Cameron traveled to Sochi […]
The struggle to keep the Eurozone intact threatens the future of a united Europe. It is not, however, the only threat the EU faces, and perhaps not even the primary one. Robert Kaplan, in a new essay (“Europe’s New Map” for The American Interest) gives proponents of a robust EU additional reasons to worry. Many of […]
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