At the heart of the latest attempted military coup is the role the Turkish people played in quashing the coup.
READ MORELast June, beclouded by Brexit, the EU launched its new Global Strategy. The strategy focuses on a number of issues and has opened a possibility for the EU to re-evaluate previous, and improve future, engagements. A case in need of a re-evaluation is the conflict in Georgia. Here the EU promotes state-building as the foundation for peace. The presence of Russia, however, drastically impedes the success of such an approach.
READ MOREIn the aftermath of the abortive Putsch orchestrated by the Turkish military, the EU finds itself in a slippery position in the attempt to offset its geopolitical concerns against the upholding of the values it promotes as a normative power. The Union’s leaders have not understood neither the substance of the golpe nor its implications, whereas the EU’s own role in the scenario should be much more pivotal.
READ MOREAffairs in which it was possible to write down such words seem worlds away from the situation we live in today, when the very concept of the European Union is challenged and put to a test, especially after the Brexit vote. Precisely because of this, it is important not only to reconsider the future development of EU’s internal affairs and structures, but also the plans and ideas that would redefine the EU as an international actor. Even though it seems the new Global Strategy, adopted two months ago, has come at the right time, the question remains whether it will trigger an adequate new approach to EU’s external affairs.
READ MOREOn the 23rd of June the Colombian government finally concluded a peace agreement with the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia). Commentators quickly labelled it a historic moment, which potentially ends the world’s longest insurgency. Signing a peace agreement is, however, one thing, effectively demobilizing fighters and reintegrating FARC-controlled territory another. How should Colombia, and the international community, tackle these problems? How can we end a conflict that left more than 220,000 dead?
READ MOREBrexiteers could not have dreamed of a more propitious Zeitgeist for their campaign: the recent Euro crisis, the hasten influx of refugees and migrants, the Islamic State’s attacks in Paris and Brussels, the March 2016 EU-Turkish deal on conditional visa-free allowances, the Prime Minister’s father’s involvement in the Panama Papers affair, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s withdrawal of some of his key proposals from the UK budget.
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