The photographer is trying to coax the Prime Minister of Finland into a three-quarter pose, with knees turned slightly to the side, hands demurely joined in her lap. But Sanna Marin isn’t having it. Just 11 days after taking office, she faces the camera squarely, legs slightly apart, and rests her hands firmly on her thighs. “This is how you…
For more than a year, Belarus-Russia relations have regularly made headlines. In late 2018, Russia suggested that Belarus would have to accept deeper bilateral integration if it wanted to benefit from greater economic cooperation. The sides engaged in intense talks throughout 2019, hoping to reach an agreement by December. However, they not only failed to sign any significant new deals,…
The Reykjavik Index research finds that Canada and France score the highest for this sector, with Reykjavik Indices of 81. Canada has had only one female Prime Minister in its history, Kim Campbell, who held the role for 132 days 1993. Germany, by contrast, has the lowest Reykjavik Index amongst the G7 for this sector (73), even though its Chancellor,…
French President Emmanuel Macron is being widely pilloried for his recent snub of the Balkans by vetoing the start of European Union (EU) accession talks for Albania and North Macedonia. Many observers are warning that Russia will reap the benefits, as the countries of the Western Balkans feel shut out by the West after having completed a substantial part of…
On that cold and snowless February evening, Unter den Linden was deserted. A pale moon hung low over the Brandenburg Gate. Opposite, behind the brightly lit windows of the Koerber Foundation, a group of young Russian foreign policy professionals had come to meet their German counterparts. The atmosphere was polite and both sides were curious. But a meeting of minds…
Both Matteo Salvini and Marine le Pen rushed on Sunday night to congratulate Santiago Abascal, leader of Spain’s radical right party, Vox, for his astounding result in the general election. No doubt the radical right has a right to celebrate Abascal’s result. In the election held in 2016, Vox obtained 46,638 votes (0.2 percent) and no seats. On Sunday, it…
This series considers how 1989 and it’s events will shape our world in the future. Was 1989 the greatest year in European history? How much of what is going on was a blip? Are we witnessing the decline of liberalism today? Ash provides insights into the course of our political history, but cautions on prescribing a course to our future.…
The recent signing of the Steinmeier Formula, which outlines the implementation of the Minsk Agreements of 2015, left neither signatories nor observers indifferent. In Ukraine, the move has provoked a wave of discontent. In pro-European circles, it spawned some cautious optimism. The Russian authorities, who had promoted this formula and achieved, so it would seem, success, have also not rushed to celebrate victory. On…
Emmanuel Macron is a man with a lot of big ideas about how Europeans should step up their game on foreign policy. Perhaps his biggest so far is for Europe to engage in negotiations with Russia on a new European security order, reflecting his belief, expressed last month, that “the European continent will never be stable, will never be secure,…
