The European Council on Foreign Relations

On the site this month

Date: 25th August 2011  |  Author: Fran Yeoman,

Categories: Europe and the world,
Tags: None

For those of you who are just returning from holidays, here is an update of what has been going on at ECFR during August:

The main story in recent days has of course been the dramatic events in Libya. This morning we posted this podcast with Richard Gowan and Hans Kundnani, looking at who should now take the lead in helping ensure a peaceful post-Gaddafi future for the country, and what role Germany might play.

Also on Libya:

• Richard Gowan blogged about the possibility of EU troops in Tripoli.
• In today’s Germany in Europe blog post, Ulrike Guérot examines how Berlin should now behave, having opposed the NATO operation.
• I posted a short piece on the question of Libyan oil.

There will be plenty more on Libya in the coming days and weeks.

Closer to home, the story of the summer has undoubtedly been the euro crisis – an issue which certainly hasn’t taken an August break. In an op-ed published by the Financial Times last week, ECFR’s director Mark Leonard warned that “markets are not just betting against the euro but testing the European project itself,” and argued that only a reinvention of Europe will break its cycle of decline. 

His piece forms part of our Reinvention of Europe project, which this month has also featured contributions from Council members, policy fellows and staff:

• Emma Bonino and Marco De Andreis called for a “Federation Lite” to allow Europe to work more logically.
• François Godement examined how the euro crisis is seen from China in this analysis piece.
• Thomas Klau argued that the crisis is leading us towards a eurozone treasury.
• Daniel Daianu wrote a commentary calling for a radical overhaul of the financial markets.
• Nicholas Walton argued that the crisis is “now about politics more than mere debt” in this blog post, and considered the unraveling of utopian economic visions in this one.
• I wrote a short blog post reflecting on the result of an Economist debate on the abolition of the euro, to which Thomas Klau contributed.

Elsewhere at ECFR:

• In last week’s Germany in Europe blog post, Ulrike Guérot explored some of her own ideas on reinventing Europe, looking at what Eurobonds would mean for member states’ ability to control their own spending.
• Hans Kundnani also blogged about German attitudes to the euro crisis: his piece asked whether we are witnessing a European “clash of civilisations.”
• Andrew Wilson reflected on twenty years of Ukrainian independence in this commentary piece.
• Susi Dennison welcomed the world’s belated call for Syria’s President Assad to go.
• I blogged about the dramatic riots we saw in England earlier this month – including close to my own home in Hackney – the role of social media in them and David Cameron’s response.
• I also wrote a blog, back in early August, looking ahead to the trial of Hosni Mubarak.
• We published the second of our podcasts on Iraq and the Arab Spring, featuring Irfan Siddiq, head of the Arab Partnership Department at the UK Foreign Office. You can listen to the first podcast, with Emma Sky, former political advisor to the coalition forces and provisional authority in Iraq, here.
• Our colleagues in Madrid published a Spanish-language podcast interview with Detlef Gürtler, author of ¡Perdón! Soy alemán.

One last piece of news is that ECFR's London office is recruiting an intern to join the China programme. See here for details.

As ever, you can follow us on Facebook or Twitter (where the feed is @ECFRheadlines) for regular updates about new material