Should Finland Join NATO?
The Ukrainian crisis has focused the attention of the international community and global mass media on the region. The annexation of Crimea and the possibility of several regions in eastern Ukraine seceding have been rightly seen as major changes to the post-Cold War geopolitical situation in Eastern Europe. At the same time, these events may...
Event Report: The Cost of Peace and Freedom
The Atlantic Initiative held a public event in Berlin in cooperation with the Heinrich Böll Foundation on The Cost of Peace and Freedom: What is security worth to us today? The panel included a security expert and a member of the Bundestag’s budgetary and defense committees. Panelists discussed Germany’s role in global defense...
Highlights of the Summer so far!
We wrap up June with a look back at some of the highlights of summer 2014 so far. With the recent collapse of the Iraqi government’s authority in northern Iraq, the Ukraine crisis and the end of the fifth round of TTIP negotiations, it continues to be an eventful year for the foreign policy community at large. Our members have been...
Ten Myths Used to Justify Russian Policy in the Ukraine Crisis
The political upheaval in Ukraine has placed territorial and social cohesion, as well as the country’s financial and economic viability, at stake. The events in Crimea have recently made clear that this critical destabilising effect primarily emanates from pro-Russian forces or actions by Russia itself. The arguments used by the Kremlin to...
Azerbaijan Looks to Thaw Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict Through Targeted Diplomacy
Azerbaijan is taking its turn as the Chair of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, and is attempting to put its own stamp on the body’s policy and pronouncements. The foremost issue for Azerbaijan is Armenia’s continued occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding Azerbaijani provinces, which has led to an armed line...
The Dawn Still Hasn’t Broken for Eastern Europe
As Russian tanks and materiel pour into Ukraine, and the West congratulates itself on its failures to respond, the former subjects of the various Russian empires have come to realize that they are once again playing a game of decades against a determined hegemon. It is therefore entirely on their own shoulders to determine their future —...
Azerbaijan, Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh, and the New Security Paradigm
Armenia is in an increasingly difficult situation of its own making, one made worse by recent events. If not properly managed, an increasingly dangerous world will become much hotter very soon. Since it illegally occupied the Nagorno-Karabakh region and surrounding Azerbaijani provinces two decades ago, Yerevan and its puppet state in the...
What Next for Ukraine and the Eastern Partnership?
Ukraine remains a sovereign country. It has not yet been chopped into statelets, its ‘oblasts at undeclared war with each other, as rump statelets align with West and East and studiously indifferent and unbelievable neutrality. Ukraine remains a sovereign country. Its capital is in Kyiv, its armed forces have retaken or are retaking land...
Azerbaijan, the Council of Europe, and Nagorno-Karabakh: A Reckoning
The failure of the world to follow through on its resolutions is endangering the authority of the bodies charged with keeping the peace. If the world will not stand by its words in the face of aggression and occupation, then combatant nations will rightly conclude that the only way to resolve their conflicts is through war — economic,...
The slow-reform trap
Read Marek Dabrowski Policy Contribution ‘The harsh reality of Ukraine’s fiscal arithmetic’ A never-ending controversy The question of optimal reform strategy, especially its speed and degree of ambition, has been repeatedly debated in relation to various historical occasions. The best-known controversy refers to the first period of...
