Research

Defending European defence in partnership with NATO, strengthening the EU's military muscle is the right idea

Tomas Valasek
09 December 2008
The Wall Street Journal
Ten years ago in St. Malo, Tony Blair and Jacques Chirac launched the European security and defence policy, or ESDP. They had the right idea: The European Union needs a defence arm if it is to play a global role, and with the demand for peacekeepers rising, ESDP could give a needed boost to the efforts of NATO and the United Nations. Or at least that was the theory.

Unilateral Germany threatens to weaken Europe

05 December 2008
Financial Times
In Brussels, Paris, Washington and other capitals, one increasingly hears the same complaint: Germany is acting unilaterally. On a broad range of issues, the Germans seem to think the European Union no longer advances their interests and are more prone to go their own way. Germany’s foreign policy has evolved...

Crisis shows imbalances are not sustainable indefinitely

Simon Tilford
27 November 2008
Financial Times
Sir, Paul Betts (“All for one, but none for all to revive Europe’s fortunes”, November 24) argues that Germany should wait for other countries to boost their economies (and hence demand for German exports) rather than taking steps to boost German domestic demand.

This is no time to listen to the siren call of the euro

Philip Whyte, Simon Tilford
14 October 2008
The Guardian
Since the Labour party entered office in 1997, the UK economy has become more "European". One of the government's first acts in office was to sign up to the EU's social chapter. It followed this with the introduction of a minimum wage in 1999, along with sustained increases in public expenditure.

Don't undermine free markets

Philip Whyte, Simon Tilford
08 October 2008
International Herald Tribune
Commentators and politicians have been falling over themselves to read the last rites to "Anglo-Saxon" capitalism. Anglo-Saxons have undoubtedly been guilty of profligacy and hubris.

The Russian challenge

Katinka Barysch
03 October 2008
Yale Global Online
The US and Europe increasingly seem at odds over an assertive Russia, flush with oil money, strong militarily and ambitious with an educated, nationalistic population. This two-part YaleGlobal series explores the implications for Europe, the US and the world.

Brussels's Bad Medicine

Simon Tilford
02 October 2008
The Wall Street Journal
Europe's prosperity depends on its developing and sustaining high-tech businesses. Twenty years ago, Europe was the center of the pharmaceutical industry, which invested roughly 30% more in R&D here than in the U.S.

Europe and the Georgia-Russia conflict

Katinka Barysch
30 September 2008
Open democracy
The European Union played a key diplomatic role in mediating the Caucasus war. Now it must do more to manage the wider tensions with Russia that have followed. Katinka Barysch offers a policy checklist.
The headlines about the conflict in the Caucasus in August 2008 have been replaced by news about...

The new Russia and how to deal with it

18 September 2008
Open democracy
Dmitri Medvedev compares '8/8', the date of Georgia's attack on South Ossetia, with 9/11. The Russian president is right that the war in Georgia, and the way the West reacted, have fundamentally changed the worldview of many Russians.

Conflit russo-géorgien: un nouveau souffle pour l'OTAN

09 September 2008
RIA Novosti
Le conflit entre la Géorgie et la Russie donnera une nouvelle impulsion à l'OTAN, a estimé dans un entretien accordé à RIA Novosti mardi le directeur du Centre britannique pour la Réforme européenne, Charles Grant.
"L'OTAN a été confrontée au problème de son activité à l'issue de la "guerre froide". Certes...

Europe must bring Ukraine into the fold

Tomas Valasek
07 September 2008
In a spectacular case of bad timing, Ukraine’s government all but collapsed last week. President Viktor Yushchenko withdrew most of his deputies from the ruling coalition with Yulia Tymoshenko, the prime minister.

The bear's Achilles heel

15 August 2008
The Guardian
For many American commentators, plucky little Georgia has been the victim of Russian imperialism. The Guardian's Seumas Milne takes an simplistic view: Russia is blameless for a war caused by US "expansion".

Can the west help prevent an all-out war between Russia and Georgia?

Tomas Valasek
08 August 2008
The Guardian
This week, Georgia made a bold gamble: it moved forces into South Ossetia; a province of Georgia that broke free in the early 1990s, in an attempt to re-assert its authority over parts or all of it.

Should we care that world trade talks have collapsed?

Katinka Barysch
31 July 2008
The Daily Telegraph
After nine days of fierce haggling, trade ministers from the 153 countries that are in the World Trade Organisation gave up this week. It is not clear whether the Doha round of multilateral trade talks - seven years in the making - is now dead. Should we care?

The era of the grand treaty is over

16 June 2008
The Guardian
Ireland has sent Europe into tumult by garrotting the Lisbon treaty at the ballot box. The possibility of resuscitating the treaty is slight. Given the large turnout, a second referendum on the text is likely to be ruled out by Irish politicians as unfeasible.

Europe must build a strategic alliance with China

09 June 2008
Financial Times
The shift of power from west to east, as the US-dominated international order becomes multipolar, is evident. But the nature of the emerging system is far from clear. Will it be competitive, based on the assertion of national power, or co-operative, framed by international rules?
Robert Kagan, in his new book...

Why free markets have little to do with inequality

Philip Whyte
02 June 2008
Financial Times
Many Europeans believe liberal economic reforms are incompatible with social justice. The US and the UK, they point out, have more liberal markets for products and labour than in continental Europe - but also higher levels of poverty and income inequality.

Russia-China: Axis of Convenience

Bobo Lo
20 May 2008
Open democracy
The China threat looms large in the Russian imagination, but is not justified by the facts suggests Bobo Lo, writing for openDemocracy's new collaboration on Russia and the world.

Turkey: The constitutional frontline

Katinka Barysch
14 April 2008
Open democracy
A legal case against Turkey's ruling party reopens the secular-Islamist argument over the country's future. It's time for wise leadership, says Katinka Barysch.

Sarkozy's bold European defence initiative

24 March 2008
Financial Times
Gordon Brown will welcome Nicolas Sarkozy to London on March 27. Almost 10 years ago, their predecessors as British prime minister and French president, Tony Blair and Jacques Chirac, launched the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) at St Malo. At this week's Franco-British summit, defence co-operation will once again...

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