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Assessing Armenia’s post-war election
Against a backdrop of profound political polarization and deep division, Armenian voters went to the polls on June 20 to elect a new parliament. ...
Analysis
Iran’s election is about succession
Change will not come after Iran’s next presidential election on June 18. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will remain the supreme decision-maker both before...
Analysis
Did Biden draw a line in the sand with or legitimize Putin in Geneva?
When President Joe Biden arrived at the historic Villa la Garange in Geneva for a much-anticipated meeting with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, he triumphantly...
Analysis
No more lip service: The EU must be more resolute vis-à-vis Russia
The first meeting between Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin showed that the US is no longer letting Moscow lead it around by the nose...
Analysis
Amazonian Brexit boost could spell climate disaster
Green campaigners fear the UK’s commitment to deforestation could be sacrificed on the altar of trade as the government woos one of the world’s...
Analysis
Chew gum – It’s good for you!
The Ancient Mayans and Aztecs enjoyed chewing chicle (sapodilla tree sap) long before William Wrigley’s Spearmint took the US by the storm in the...
Analysis
Europe must double down on fighting antisemitism
Whenever Israel exercises its right to defend itself against terror, count on a wave of violent antisemitism to sweep across the West. Last month,...
Analysis
Climate management key in repairing Biden-Putin relationship
After seven years of sanctions and accusations of malign activities by both sides, political relations between Russia and the United States are the worst...
Analysis
‘Yes to Nuclear’ for heavy decarbonization
The New Nuclear Watch Institute’s (NNWI) ‘Yes to Nuclear’ Perspectives initiative has released its monthly publication for May, focusing on the crucial role of...
Albania
Washington gets tough on “destabilizers” in the Western Balkans
On June 8, President Joe Biden issued an Executive Order (EO) intended to update US sanctions policy regarding Balkan corruption and political destabilization activities,...
Analysis
France’s “Hold Up” conspiracy video case: Are double standards unavoidable?
The gradual growth of the number of administered COVID-19 jabs has brought the prospects of returning back to normal and achieving herd immunity against...
Analysis
A fiscal pandemic on the EU’s eastern border may eventually strike at the heart of Europe
The economic crisis in the European Union that was caused by the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic has slowly started to subside after months...
Analysis
Democracies must hold their companies to higher standards in China
Earlier this month, the New York Times published the findings of its multi-year investigation into how Apple has risked Chinese customers’ data and the...
Analysis
Tougher sanctions against Belarus
It was a clear act of state-sponsored terrorism. An Irish passenger plane from the Irish budget airline Ryan Air, while on its way from...
Afghanistan
Turkey: A state sponsor of terrorism?
Turkey functions like a state-sponsor of terrorism (SST), fueling Islamist extremism domestically and deploying jihadist mercenaries to Syria, Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh. Listing Turkey as...
Albania
Is EU Enlargement on hold yet again?
As Portugal’s EU presidency is reaching its final month, additional pressure is expected on Bulgaria to press it to resolve its ongoing dispute with...
Africa
The biggest investment for African public health is its healthcare workers
In 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus asked African Union states “to come together to be more aggressive in attacking” the...
Analysis
Lessons learned from COVID-19 pandemic: Unity is strength
Almost every day, a country in Europe announces the relaxation of pandemic measures. Some states approach the process systematically. Exactly and on time according...
Africa
Must “resource cursed” countries always suffer the double jinx of conflict traps?
A “resource cursed” country is one in which an abundance of natural resources fosters worse development outcomes than those without. Often termed “the paradox...
Analysis
The right to hydrogen
Even one year ago hydrogen would have been regarded as an interesting niche technology – but rather science-fiction than a future cornerstone of the...
Africa
Terrorist threat moves to North and Central Africa
The current situation in North and Central Africa is highly explosive and poses certain risks not only to regional security but to Western Europe...
Albania
Washington designates corrupt former Albanian officials
On May 19, the US Department of State announced the designation of former Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha and his family members for involvement...
Analysis
To protect free speech, Europe must answer the Christchurch Call
The 2019 Christchurch massacre was a ‘performance crime’ perpetrated by Brenton Tarrant. The Australian was first radicalised in a series of far-right online echo...
Albania
Why is the Rama government going soft on Hamas?
To date, the violations of the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) debated in Tirana and Brussels were related to business issues. The SAA, the...
Analysis
It’s hard to make friends but easy to lose them: A tale of Russia’s self-inflicted isolation
In recent years Estonia did its best to develop an engaging and pragmatic approach towards Russia. In April 2019, President Kersti Kaljulaid visited Moscow,...
Albania
Mid-East turmoil eclipses Greece’s latest Balkan initiatives
Greek officials found time to engage in several rounds of Balkan diplomacy this week, once again taking advantage of the presence in Greece of...
Analysis
Gaza media rules
No sooner had Palestinian “worshipers” on the Temple Mount chanted “Bomb, bomb Tel Aviv,” than Hamas gladly obliged and fired hundreds of rockets at...
Africa
The cobalt corrective: Are we facing a supply crunch?
The recent ease in global demand for blue metal - cobalt - has dampened concerns about a pending supply crunch. Earlier reports predicted that...
Analysis
The soft power of big business in a former Soviet republic
The increasing isolation of Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko’s regime on the international stage raises important questions about the future of the country’s economy. As...
Albania
Learning from past mistakes and moving ahead in the wake of the Albanian elections
In the first days of this week after the election results were announced, I conducted a computer exercise, dividing the result of each subject...
Analysis
The significance of U.S. recognition of the Armenian genocide
Like every U.S. leader before him, President Joseph Biden issued a commemorative statement on April 24 to mark the annual commemoration of the Armenian...
Albania
Slovenia provokes with non-paper supporting Balkan partitions
A non-paper purported to be of Slovenian authorship has drawn increasing attention over the last weeks that it has been circulating because it appears...
Afghanistan
With GSP+ beneficiary status, Uzbekistan takes major step towards closer relations with Europe
A decision by the European Union to include Uzbekistan as the ninth beneficiary of its Special Incentive Arrangement for Sustainable Development and Good Governance,...
Albania
Southeast Europe begins to tackle COVID-19 immunization delays
In terms of Covid-19 vaccinations, the gap between Europe’s haves and have nots finally appears to be narrowing, after many months where much of...
Analysis
The “Europeanization” of Greek-Turkish relations: Why the Greeks favor Ankara’s EU membership
Harmonious relations with Greece has become an objective of Turkish diplomacy. The European Union’s policy of conditionality linking progress in EU-Turkey relations to Ankara’s...
Analysis
Keep Calm and Carry On: Ukraine needs a good relationship with the Western media more than ever
'You can't do right for doing wrong', as the old saying goes. Then there's also 'no good deed goes unpunished'. I had the first-hand experience...
Analysis
The Eastern Mediterranean sideshow
We have just been through a week in which the world focused its attention completely on the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Second place went to Afghanistan...
Albania
The process or the result: The need to revisit the Western Balkans’ EU integration process.
During the 2005 general election campaign, a senior opposition figure stated that in the event of his party winning, Albania would join the European...
Analysis
Nord Stream-2: Why not establish a Navalny tax?
The nearly complete Nord Stream-2 pipeline may not be the perfect storm, but it does present Washington and Berlin with a list of terrible...
Analysis
A ‘burn’ on the Ukrainian border
If you have been to Ukraine, you have surely tried 'gorilka', the national vodka-style spirit. The word 'gorilka' is derived from the verb 'gority',...
Analysis
US sanctions for Turkey’s S-400 procurement come into effect
The State Department revealed on April 5 that previously announced US sanctions on Turkey’s military-industrial sector would come into effect on April 7 with...
Analysis
TIU Canada vs Ukrainian oligarch, Igor Kolomoisky
It was a sunny, but bitterly cold January day in Nikopol in 2018, a typical industrial city on the Dnieper River in Ukraine's southwestern...
Analysis
Has Uzbekistan achieved its goal to integrate education and science?
The period of rapid globalization that the world continues to experience requires renewal and a greater form of integration in every field. To achieve...
Analysis
Blinken reaffirms America’s focus on rebuilding partnerships
During his March 22-25 trip to Brussels, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken emphasized repeatedly that the Biden administration will work to rebuild America’s...
Analysis
Erdogan starts a political earthquake in Turkey
Significant developments are underway in Turkey. Most ominously, the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) has moved...
Analysis
Continuity in times of crises: UNIDO partnering with the Vienna Process
On March 8 – International Women’s Day – a large number of international affairs specialists gathered for a summit in Vienna for a leg...
Africa
Zimbabwe is opening up
Zimbabwe has turned a corner. And whilst across the world the past year has been focused on closing – from lockdowns to closed borders...
Analysis
The future is climate security
Along the Rue de la Loi in Brussels the statement “the Future is Europe” is plastered on a mural. Given the difficulties the continent...
Analysis
Methane emissions from imported oil and gas can no longer be ignored by Brussels
Recent satellite imagery of Russian gas infrastructure has pushed methane emissions back into the headlines. While much more data is needed to get a...
Analysis
Biden’s narrow timeline to get tough on Putin
On March 2, President Joe Biden’s administration, together with the United Kingdom and the European Union, announced new sanctions against Russia over last summer's...
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