Even the most difficult and protracted negotiations are preferable to the spectre of further armed conflict.
Geopolitics in Eastern Europe
The Russian Threat against Ukraine: A Long History and an Uncertain Future
The current escalation between Russia and Ukraine is the latest chapter in a saga of deteriorating relations dating back almost two decades.
Ukraine: a country wounded by eight years of crisis
Ukraine’s domestic resilience is as important a contribution to European and global security in the long term as the immediate imperative of deterring Russian aggression.
Ukraine a pawn in high-stakes global game with no quick win in sight for EU, US or Russia
Given the depth of these problems, Ukraine’s crisis is certain to continue. Any effort to resolve it in a sustainable way will require a more comprehensive agreement and the breathing space to negotiate it–neither of which will be possible without highly responsible and strategic leadership in Kiev, Moscow, Brussels and Washington.
The Transnistrian Issue: Moving Beyond the Status-Quo
The EU has a clear opportunity to contribute to the settlement of the Transnistrian conflict and prove itself an effective conflict manager and actor for stability and security in its own neighbourhood. This is a task that is not without challenges, but these challenges are of such a nature that the EU can, and must, confront them.
The European Union’s South Ossetia Dilemma
The dilemma for the EU is that it has put itself in a position in which it cannot side with the people of South Ossetia who, in their majority, have endorsed a female candidate in a presidential election deemed free and fair.
Two decades of ‘frozen’ conflicts in the post-Soviet space
At the end of 2011, it will be twenty years since the dissolution of the Soviet Union but so-called “frozen conflicts” in Moldova, Georgia, and Azerbaijan stubbornly persist. Why, despite significant international efforts, has no settlement been achieved for these conflicts over the past two decades?
An Anniversary Worth Commemorating
The 1991 Polish-German Treaty on Good Neighbourly Relations and Friendly Cooperation has been a remarkable success in resetting German-Polish relations and bringing them to an unprecedented level of constructive and mutually beneficial engagement across all levels of government, business and society.
Can the EU do without its Special Representatives?
As so often with international organisations, the problem might be less the availability of resources and expertise, but the political will to deploy them.