Conflict

Their worlds are still far apart: national security and foreign policy experts have traditionally thought of energy mainly in terms of the need to secure access to energy resources from abroad while avoiding strategic dependence on the suppliers.

Although Greens tend to agree on most issues, they don’t always think alike. Politicians from France, the UK and Germany discuss their stances and those of their national parties on the military industry, drones, Afghanistan, the legacy of Joschka Fischer, among other thorny issues…

While the spectrum of ideas defining a Green foreign policy remains wide, several overarching tenets have emerged over the past decades.

How can we explain the stalling of talks and postponement of real action towards nuclear disarmament, and what are the obstacles holding back the EU from being a leader by example?

Medication and water bottles have numerous advantages in a crisis situation, but it’s quite sure that they cannot be used to stop ISIS. The greatest dilemmas of European Greens are rooted in a conflict of values, as well as in the difficulty of reconciling theory and practice. To overcome them, Greens need to work on a political solution.

While the traditional European way of peace-making was based on separating peoples, the Green European way of peace-building should be based on power-sharing and trust-building.

Over the past decade, an ongoing reshuffle in the balance of global power has seen China change scale from regional to world actor, Russia reassert its ambition to be treated like a major player, and calls emerging for Europe to play a more active role in world politics.

Bashir Ahmad Fatehi has been busy with cultural and educational projects since completing post-graduate work in political science. Here he gives his impressions of the political scene in post-Taliban Afghanistan, the challenges which lie ahead and the important role of young politicians in the prospects for a stable and vibrant future.

In everyday life, nationalism and intolerance are creeping back into Croatian society. We’re at risk of destroying the memory of anti-fascist hero Stjepan Filipović, but membership of the EU may be an opportunity to reverse this.

The deal between Serbia and Kosovo, brokered on 19 April by Catherine Ashton, is a sign of hope that the future of the western Balkans lies in the EU – but there is much more work to be done.