United Nations
Albania
Balkan rumblings: Setbacks on enlargement and new Prespes violations
Against the backdrop of another EU presidency (Portugal) failing to move ahead this month on the Enlargement issue as well as a generally slow...
Archive
Open letter to European leaders on Iranian elections
Dear Josep Borrell, Boris Johnson, Emmanuel Macron, Angela Merkel:On Friday, June 18th, the Islamic Republic of Iran held its thirteenth presidential election since the...
Albania
EU enlargement: Cui bono?
EU enlargement: cui bono? Several Foreign Ministers from EU countries visited Tirana and the North Macedonian capital Skopje in the last weeks to meet local...
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,...
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,...
Archive
No discounts on the EU’s fundamental values
Alexander Schallenberg has been Austria's Federal Minister for European and International Affairs in the second Sebastian Kurz government since January 2020. He previously served...
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...
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...
Archive
INTERVIEW: Uzbek Deputy PM Aziz Abdukhakimov
With Italy's famed lagoon city of Venice opening its doors for the 17th Architecture Biennale, New Europe had the pleasure to speak, in an...
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...
Albania
Ukraine’s chances to join NATO are slim to none, despite Zelensky’s claims
The Russian-Ukrainian conflict was once again back in the headlines in April when people across the world followed massive troop build-ups in and around...
Archive
Colonial Pipeline Darkside ransom hack shows nobody safe
The largest pipeline system for refined oil products in the US, the Colonial Pipeline, was shut down last week after a ransomware cyberattack. On...
Albania
COVID-19 vaccine supplies trickle into Southeast Europe
In line with global trends, deliveries of COVID-19 vaccine supplies to Southeast Europe increased in April, but the record to-date shows it was anything...
Asia & Pacific
Michelle Bachelet should not go to Xinjiang on Chinese government terms
When Michelle Bachelet became the world's top human rights official in 2018, she expressed deep concern about the human rights catastrophe in the Xinjiang...
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...
Archive
Check the Czechs
With the Czech Republic having the dubious honor of hosting the latest chapter in the ongoing saga of the West versus Vladimir Putin's Russia...
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...
Afghanistan
Uzbekistan’s key priorities for the comprehensive development of transport corridors in Central Asia
Over the past 4 years, Uzbekistan under the leadership of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has been carrying out systemic reforms aimed at liberalizing and modernizing...
Environment
The business of sustainability: A Swedish success story
From popstars to flat-pack pioneers, the Swedes are no strangers to global domination, but today the flag they fly is not so much blue...
Archive
Confrontation in Ukraine
The recent unprovoked amassing of Russian troops on Ukraine’s border has overtaken a significant event that took place a few weeks earlier when Russia...
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...
Albania
Dialogue for mutual recognition will succeed when the EU joins the US in its Kosovo approach
After the snap parliamentary elections of February 14, Kosovo has a new government facing the EU's facilitated dialogue with Serbia for normalization of relations...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Climate action for people and the planet: The time is now
In this pivotal year for humanity, now is the time for bold climate action.The science is irrefutable and globally agreed: to stop the climate...
Archive
The Ides of March have brought new tensions on Ukraine’s eastern border
Since mid-March, Russia and Ukraine have both been massing troops along the borders of the Russian-annexed Crimea and the conflict zone in Ukraine's eastern...
Africa
Does the UN have the right solution for the Central African Republic?
The United Nations was established after World War II as a successor of the ineffective League of Nations. It is an intergovernmental organization that...
China
Uzbek Energy Minister sees low-carbon solar, hydro, wind future
Uzbekistan is committed to a low-carbon strategy, improving energy efficiency and increasing the share of renewable energy sources in the Central Asian country's energy...
Archive
UN Security Council agrees to condemn violence in Myanmar
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has unanimously agreed to condemn the violence against pro-democracy protesters in Myanmar, calling for a reversal of the military...
Archive
New transatlantic partnership for global change in motion
US President Joe Biden’s climate envoy, John Kerry, visited the weekly meeting of the College of Commissioners in Brussels on March 9 to discuss...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Humanitarian crisis in the Central African Republic
The European Union has recently been criticized for not doing enough to promote the cause of democracy in the Central African Republic (CAR). This...
Archive
Is Turkey undermining the Washington Agreement?
In a deal brokered during the closing months of the presidency of Donald Trump, Kosovo and Israel agreed to establish diplomatic relations as part...
Archive
UN chief warns of Yemen ‘death sentence’ as donor pledges fall short
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday expressed his disappointment that a virtual pledging event has failed to raise sufficient funds to avert a large-scale...
Archive
UN’s Guterres to hold Cyprus talks in April
The United Nations on Thursday confirmed it will hold a five-party meeting in Geneva in April to examine the prospects of resolving the Cyprus...
Archive
Iran, IAEA agree to nuclear inspection deal with less access
The head of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, Rafael Mariano Grossi said it reached an agreement with Iran to continue the "necessary monitoring" of the...
Archive
WHO approves AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine for emergency use
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday approved AstraZeneca and Oxford University’s Coronavirus vaccine for emergency use, days after a panel of experts provided...
Archive
Iran threatens to block snap nuclear inspections
Iran threatened on Monday to block snap inspections by the UN nuclear watchdog from next week if other parties to the 2015 nuclear deal...
Iran
Iran’s November atrocity – justice still sought after fifteen months of silence
On November 15, 2019, Iran was on the brink of what felt like a peaceful revolution. In the early hours of the morning, against...
Analysis
A new dawn for Libya brings hope for regional stability
While it may seem as though only one subject has dominated the news for the past year, and our lives came to a very...
Archive
UN-sponsored peace talks approve candidate list to head Libya’s transitional government
Participants at Libya’s UN-sponsored peace talks have approved a list of candidates seeking to lead a transitional government that will prepare the country for...
Archive
Biden and the EU’s fight against climate change and disinformation
President Joe Biden has made clear his foreign policy objectives for his first 100 days in office. Clear signals have been sent about a...
Albania
Out in the cold: SE Europe in dire need of vaccine supplies
With the COVID-19 pandemic steadily worsening across much of Europe, the citizens of the continent’s Southeast European region have been left out of much...
Archive
Stunned world reacts to Capitol Hill disruptions
Even though the January 6 disruptions in Washington that resulted in five deaths are seen to fall exclusively in the domain of the term...
Archive
Tokayev signs law abolishing death penalty in Kazakhstan
NUR-SULTAN, Kazakhstan – Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan On ratification of the Second Optional Protocol to the...
Archive
Kosovo’s President Thaci heading to The Hague
Kosovo’s President Hashim Thaci, former commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), announced his resignation on November 5 upon confirming that a tribunal in...
Afghanistan
Final Trump UN General Assembly address hits multilateralism
In the final address to the UN General Assembly of his current term in office, US President Donald J Trump sent a short video...
Analysis
Trump Administration’s Kosovo announcement fails to impress
The Trump Administration’s second attempt to gather Kosovar and Serbian leaders at the White House succeeded on September 4 just as Washington and most...
Archive
US walks alone in Iran sanctions, EU goes other way
The European Union remains committed to implementing the Iran nuclear deal as a matter of respecting international agreements and of the bloc’s shared international...
Albania
North Macedonia’s elections unfold, marginally, as directed
To the delight of North Macedonia’s western supporters, the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) landed a razor-thin electoral majority on July 15 in...
Albania
Trump Administration’s controversial Kosovo gambit accelerates
While not unexpected, the Trump Administration has moved faster than many observers anticipated to restart its ongoing diplomatic initiative to resolve a significant piece...
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