Leaders and Slackers on Ukraine’s Reform Process (ECFR)
This text is an annex to “Keeping up appearances: How Europe is supporting Ukraine’s transformation” by Gustav Gressel, Senior Policy Fellow at the ECFR, and has been compiled by national researchers in each of the EU member states. …read more Source: Institute of World...
Ukraine’s Omnipresent Oligarchs
Neither the Euromaidan revolution nor reform efforts have succeeded in undermining Ukraine’s oligarchic system, which still shapes the country’s politics. …read more Source: Carnegie Endowment for International...
Judy Asks: Are Referenda Dangerous?
Rosa Balfour – Senior fellow in the Europe Program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States Little wisdom is to be found in the contemporary use of referenda. They are sold as tools of direct democracy to promote political participation among citizens who have turned away from politics. But in practice, they prize majoritarian...
Why Russia Fears NATO
Ted Galen Carpenter Adam Twardowski takes umbrage at arguments that I and other members of the realism and restraint camp have made that NATO’s behavior over the past two decades has exacerbated tensions with Russia. He begins his rebuttal with a drive-by smear that is increasingly in vogue among neoconservatives, dismissing such arguments...
Implementation of the Minsk Agreements: “Red Lines” for Ukraine
Ukrainian think tanks have prepared a memo for Ukrainian authorities regarding the “red lines,” i.e. the limits for compromise in the areas of political dialogue, security, and humanitarian issues that should not be crossed by Ukraine within the framework of the Minsk Agreements implementation. …read more Source: Institute of World...
Alleged Russia-Orchestrated Cyberattacks Won’t Go Away
As the U.S. presidential election hits high gear, the candidates and U.S. government won’t let the infiltrations earlier this year fade away. …read more Source: Transitions Online...
Georgian Parliamentary Election Results and Aftermath
[Editor’s Note: This blog entry follows up on the author’s E-Note “Of Georgian Personalities and Politics: European Dreams, National Elections, and Future Days” that appeared on October 7, 2016.] Bidzina Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream (GD) electoral bloc appears to have won a 49% plurality in the October 8 parliamentary elections....
Six Tasks for the New UN Secretary-General António Guterres
By choosing a former head of government as the UN’s ninth Secretary-General, the UN Security Council has expressed its wish for a more decisive executive. António Guterres lacks neither skills nor determination, but he has a tough task ahead.After four months and six rounds of votes, the UN Security Council has chosen its successor to Ban...
Russia Moves Missiles to NATO’s Baltic Border
Members of the military alliance squirm as Moscow transfers nuclear capable Iskander-M missiles to its Kaliningrad enclave. …read more Source: Transitions Online...
Russia Lurking in the Background of Contentious Moldovan Election
If elected, the pro-Russia presidential candidate leading the polls might turn the country away from its pro-Western path, local politicians warn. …read more Source: Transitions Online...
