The best argument against Brexit is that one cannot fully tell what the effects of the UK leaving the EU would be as no member state has ever left the union before. However, there is certainly the feeling that the EU and UK would go through a messy divorce.
NATO’s cooperation with Algeria offers potential in combating international human trafficking networks. Reviving the ‘regional NATO’ plan for a joint military organization of Saharan states would allow governments to better disrupt the routes used to transport many migrants to the Mediterranean coast.
Beijing attempted to quash any mention of the South China Sea dispute prior to Tuesday’s meeting in Kuala Lumpur of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Despite the roller coaster of political and security-related drama that dominated the headlines in this past year, I still remain optimistic about Somalia’s future — cautiously of course.
map: ChinaSmack Tensions escalated in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, as Ukrainian forces killed up to five pro-Moscow separatist rebels, and Russia launched army drills near the border in response, raising fears its troops would invade. The Ukrainian action took place to recapture territory from the rebels, who have seized swaths of eastern Ukraine since April […]
With the Hungarian parliamentary elections just days away, Western media remains perplexed by the popularity of Viktor Orbán and his ruling Fidesz party in polls. Having been denounced time and again as a power-abusing autocrat by outsiders, Orbán’s image within his home country remains relatively unscathed. Many observers have misunderstood the reality of Orbán’s […]
If the 20th century was about an ideological fight between market-economy versus Communism, the 21st could very much be about liberal democracy versus imperialism. This could be the very lesson of Russia’s invasion of Crimea. Power politics is – even though it has never disappeared – now a reality that the EU and the U.S. […]
Editor’s Note: Ian Bremmer is President of Eurasia Group, the world’s leading global political risk research and consulting firm. Dr. Bremmer is also Global Research Professor at the New York University (NYU) and author, most recently, of Every Nation for Itself: Winners and Losers in a G-Zero World. by Ian Bremmer As Russia conducts direct […]
The EU has proposed that it join with the United States to formally coordinate their financial regulatory activities, as part of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Principles (TTIP). U.S. officials reportedly oppose the proposal because such an agreement might dilute Dodd-Frank and other new American regulations. It is more important that they it for reasons of deep principle, and economics. First world executives and […]
1. A Bird Does Not Change Its Feathers. The big players are not going anywhere. In 2014, Netanyahu will still be Prime Minister of Israel, Abbas will still head the Palestinian Authority, and Obama will still be the U.S. president. Obama has for some time now removed himself from the scene, with Secretary of […]
Where do European interests lay? What are Europeans’ priorities? How can Europeans influence and shape their environments? In a recent speech, HR Ashton declared that the CSDP faces several challenges; one being that “there is no agreed long-term vision on the future of CSDP.” These questions are fundamental in order to discuss the future of the […]
The European Union should provide Ukraine with the trade benefits it would have realized had Russian pressure not prompted the government of President Viktor Yanukovych to announce on November 21 that it would not sign a long-anticipated Association Agreement with the EU. That announcement set off not only pro-EU protests in the streets of […]
The Philippines were hurt by one of the strongest typhoons ever recorded. Typhoon Haiyan hit a highly populated area of the Philippines on November 7th and 8th. Apparently an estimated 10 millions people were affected by the Typhoon, and almost 3 million people have lost their livelihood. The death toll stood at 3,974 and over […]
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 […]
Life has been good for Serbs living in northern Kosovo. For the past 14 years, since the NATO-led bombing campaign forced Serbia’s government out of power, some 50,000 residents in the four municipalities north of the Ibar River in Kosovo, which is mostly ethnic Albanian, have inhabited a sort of gray area in which both […]