While the rest of the world is preoccupied with terrorist attacks in Tunisia and Kuwait, the political crisis in Ukraine appears to be heading towards all-out war again. And with EU leaders currently occupied with Greece, Ukraine and Russia may well be heading into another bout of armed conflict.
Confidence Building
Moscow holds aces as bombing rattles shaky Ukraine ceasefire
Just as the latest peace deal to stabilise Ukraine was being put into place, a bomb exploded in the city of Kharkiv, killing two people and injuring at least ten, while another was found and defused in Odessa.
Ukraine ceasefire announced at Minsk summit – what next?
After all night talks in the Belarusian capital Minsk, the outcomes of the four party talks in the so-called Normandy format have neither brought a major breakthrough or a complete disaster. As a deal, it is not a solution, but perhaps a step towards one.
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.
Twenty Years On: The Continuing Relevance of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities
Given the persistence of minority-majority tensions and conflict across the OSCE area and beyond, the institution of the High Commissioner on National Minorities remains as relevant today as twenty years ago, and I see three specific areas in which the HCNM has a future role to play: monitoring, preventive quiet diplomacy, and policy transfer.
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.
Representation of Autonomous Entities at the Level of the Central Government
This report was prepared for a meeting, organised by the European Centre for Minority Issues, with Moldovan and Gagauz officials, aimed at assisting them in resolving their differences over the interpretation of the 1995 Law on the Special Status of Gagauzia. It...