Year: 0

The Imperialists from Moscow
Ronald D. Asmus
2/6/2010
On Saturday, German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung published an Op-ed by Ron Asmus entitled "The imperialists from Moscow". The article looks back at the 2008 war between Russia and Georgia, trying to identify possible reasons for and consequences of it. Asmus argues that the Georgia war of August 2008 was a little war by the standards of modern warfare, but it shook the world and brought Russia and the West to the brink of a new cold war.

Economic rebalancing is coming, whatever the EU wants
Bruce Stokes
February 4, 2010
Obama wants to change the balance of the international economic order. Europe will need to adapt or to persuade him otherwise.

Splitting Europe's budget bill
Jack Thurston
2/3/2010
Who are the misers and who are the gold-diggers among the EU's 27 member states? Some are Gold Diggers, happy to reap the benefits of integration and let others pick up the tab. Others are Misers – fans of budget discipline and a smaller CAP, but keen to claim compensation for their net balance deficits. Others still are Fence-Sitters: quick to pay lip service to the idea of budgetary discipline, they are still keen to maintain CAP spending levels. That is the conclusion of a new paper analysing the EU member states' responses to the “fundamental” review of the EU budget, which the European Commission launched in 2007.

Transforming Economies through Green Investment: Needs, Progress, and Policies
February 3, 2010
Authors from the Ecologic Institute lay out a roadmap for the United States and European Union to transition to a clean energy economy and protect the climate. The roadmap calls for policymaking that drives investment in clean energy technologies at an annual level of $1 trillion by 2026, much of which will come from the private sector.

The Difficult Triangle of the Pacific Powers
Jörg Himmelreich
2/2/2010
India, China, and the United States rely on each other as littoral states of the Pacific, but they also compete with each other at the same time. Washington’s rapprochement to Beijing will fail in the long run if it does not consider the encumbered Chinese-Indian relationship.

Farming should protect Europe’s environmental resources, not use them up
Jack Thurston
1/29/2010
In 2009, farm incomes fell across the whole of the EU, not least in France. This is despite the EU spending 55 billion euro on the common agricultural policy (CAP), one of whose aims is to ensure farmers a fair standard of living. The data shows that across Europe, 85 percent of aid goes to the top 17 percent of recipients.

Ukraine and the EU: A Family Portrait
Alina Inayeh
January 27, 2010
The incoherence of the EU's approach to Ukraine has pushed Ukraine to believe the European Union has lost interest in the country. Ukraine's leadership blames the EU for closing the door. The European Union, in turn, blames Ukrainian leaders for their lack of political will to reform and to act on promises made after the Orange Revolution.

Turkey and the EU: Looking Back on 2009
Diba Nigar Göksel
January 26, 2010
Since 1999, Turkey has been a candidate for membership in the European Union. Early on, the process of accession united divergent political and social camps and triggered a virtual cycle of change. For the past few years, however, both the pace of reforms to meet the EU's political criteria and the enthusiasm for membership have declined.

Better NATO-EU relations require more sincerity
January 26, 2010
Following an agreement on a new NATO Strategic Concept, the EU needs to take compatible steps. A number of practical arrangements need to be put in place in such a way as to embrace all non-EU European allies.

A Social Democrat Wins In Croatia ~ And The Balkans Move Forward
Ivan Vejvoda
1/22/2010
The landslide victory of Ivo Josipovic in the January 10 presidential elections in Croatia bodes well, not just for the country, but also for the Western Balkans as a whole -- not least for the region’s hopes for membership in the European Union.

Power Shift: How the West Can Adapt and Thrive in an Asian Century
January 22, 2010
How can the United States and its transatlantic allies overcome the primary security dilemma of the 21st century, that of sustaining an economic system that will fuel the rise of China, a power whose growing clout threatens to challenge Western control over the international system? This paper explores solutions to overcoming this quandary.

Ukraine: Democracy in Progress
Pavol Demeš , David J. Kramer
January 19, 2010
Voters in Ukraine went to the polls on Sunday to cast their ballots for the country’s next president. As expected, none of the 18 candidates secured enough votes to win in the first round, necessitating a second round between the two top vote-getters: former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and current Prime Minister Yuliya Tymoshenko. Both candidates speak of improving relations with Russia and deepening ties with the European Union and the United States.

Controlling the human tide
Delancey Gustin, Zsolt Nyiri
January 18, 2010
When the Lisbon Treaty entered into force on December 1, the European Union took a large step toward establishing a common immigration policy. This is the dream – or the nightmare, depending on whom you ask – of many leaders in Europe.

The Farm Bill and Beyond
Dan Morgan
January 13, 2010
This paper examines these tensions in the context of the 2008 farm bill, with a view to setting the stage for the next phase of the debate in the United States and Europe over climate, energy, farm subsidies, food safety, trade, and agricultural aid to farmers in developing countries.

Putin Is Medvedev’s Biggest Spoiler
David J. Kramer
1/13/2010
Comments by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in late December must have come as an unwelcome surprise to Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev as they try to conclude a new U.S.-Russian arms control agreement to replace the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START, that expired on Dec. 5. But this was not the first time that Putin has thrown cold water on Medvedev’s efforts.

Security Choices After the Election: New Direction for Ukraine?
Joseph R. Wood
January 13, 2010
Although NATO membership is not getting headlines in this year’s Ukrainian presidential election, the broader issue of Ukrainian security is very much at stake.

What are the transatlantic lessons for East Asian institution-building?
January 12, 2010
East Asia is today home to a crowded, multi-layered landscape of regional organizations. While initially suspicious of adopting European models for regional cooperative institutions, Asia has now become more open to such concepts.

Energy Security for Ukraine and Europe
Jörg Himmelreich
January 11, 2010
Reforming Ukraine’s energy sector is vital for the future of Ukraine’s economy and security.

Eine deutsche Pakistanstrategie
Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff, Daniel Twining
1/9/2010
Ignoring Pakistan is dangerous for a country that has troops in Afghanistan -- even if it is only a midsize country and has no historical ties to Pakistan or interests there.

The Economic Crisis and the Mediterranean: Mixed Effects, Longer-Term Questions
January 7, 2010
This brief, the first in a series on the Mediterranean and the economic crisis, explores the impact of the global pressures on key countries in North Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean, including Israel and Turkey.

A new decade and a new transatlantic strategy?
Bruce Stokes
January 7, 2010
A new year, a new European Commission and a U.S. president who can no longer get by simply by not being George Bush create an opportunity to take a new look at the U.S.-EU strategic relationship for the new decade.

More than a Neighbor: Why Ukraine Matters
Joerg Forbrig
January 5, 2010
With expectations disappointed among Ukrainians, and impatience widespread in the West, it may be tempting to disregard the January 17, 2010 presidential election as just another in an endless series of polls that have done little to advance Ukraine in recent years. That verdict, however, would be as premature as it would be irresponsible.

Corruption and Confidence in Public Institutions: Evidence from a Global Survey
Zsolt Nyiri
January 5, 2010
(Written with Bianca Clausen and Aart Kraay, World Bank) The authors use data from the Gallup World Poll to document a quantitatively large and statistically significant negative correlation between corruption and confidence in public institutions.

The Self-Chained Republic
Constanze Stelzenmüller
1/1/2010
German security policy, 20 years after the fall of the Wall: less than necessary, less than possible. A polemic in five theses and recommendations.