Foreign Policy

UCL assistant professor Brian Klaas discusses the West’s role in global democratic decline and what should be done to reverse this trend.

Under the leadership of foreign policy chief Sofia Belver-Tamarashvili, the European Republic becomes a global force for social and environmental justice.

A discussion on Russia’s relationship with the EU, power politics, and the annexation of Crimea.

Treating the current crises effectively shouldn’t undermine a long-term effort to cement stability and peace through smart and soft power, through avenues such as international development.

With a shifting global balance of power, former German Foreign Minister and Vice-chancellor Joschka Fischer talks about the EU’s role and how it can promote global stability.

As Trump steps into the White House, does this signal the end of US soft power? And if so, what could this mean for Europe and the rest of the world?

The roots of the 13th of November are also to be sought from the foreign policy of both Europe and France over the past forty years. Europe’s withdrawal from the Palestinian question, the missed opportunity with Turkey which could have so easily been brought into the fold of the EU, France’s alliance with the ‘petro-monarchies’… are all mistakes which have only served to aggravate the calamity and feed rancour and radicalisation in the Middle-East.

At the southern border of “Fortress Europe”, the Mediterranean has turned into a graveyard. The current migrant crisis in Europe is about more than a risk to the EU’s reputation. It strikes at the core of the EU’s founding values. A continuation of its half-hearted response to the migration crisis is out of question.

Myths endure because they create an outstanding surface upon which a range of ideas can be projected. The idea of a European army is no different. It has long been a repository for a wide array of concepts and goals for a flamboyant vision. Yet anyone who tries to grasp this pretty soap bubble ends up disappointed: It slips away or bursts.

“War,” said the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus, is the “father of all things.” In view of the bloody – indeed barbaric – events in the Middle East (and in Iraq and Syria in particular), one might be tempted to agree, even though such ideas no longer seem to have a place in the postmodern worldview of today’s Europe.