A good day for good cop diplomacy
The UN Security Council has approved new sanctions on Iran. Europe’s good cop diplomacy contributed to this success, and will play an important role in holding the new agreement together
ECFR Council
The crisis we missed
29 May is the 5th anniversary of the French ?non? to the EU constitution. The Dutch followed with a ?nee? a few days later. Richard Gowan paints a bleak picture of the Europe that might have emerged had the French and Dutch backed the EU constitution in 2005, and asks: Will the EU never be happy?
Why Cathy needs a good crisis
Catherine Ashton will be judged on how she responds to her first international emergency. Budget cuts might mean there will be less EU missions to crisis zones under her watch. So where will her first opportunity come from? Africa, the Middle East, or a crisis involving Russia?
The IKEA guide to Lisbon
Implementing the Lisbon Treaty is the bureaucratic equivalent of putting together an IKEA flat-pack table. First step: read the instructions
Eine St?tze fur den Euro
Der Euro braucht eine institutionelle Komplettierung und es h?ngt ganz wesentlich von Deutschland ab, ob das erreicht wird oder nicht
Trench warfare
Snubbing the European Union never came so easy or at such a cheap price
Ignoring the outside world
Does it really matter whether Catherine Ashton’s travel plans include Haiti, Gaza or an erupting Icelandic volcano? There must be more insightful analysis, and less idle gossip, in press coverage of EU attempts to forge a common foreign policy
Europe?s future foreign policy at risk
Before Catherine Ashton can become an effective actor on the global stage, the European Union’s new foreign policy chief needs to have in place the diplomatic service, ordained by the Lisbon treaty
Incompetent multilateralism?
The Economist?s Charlemagne asks: if Obama’s American can’t make soft power work, what hope does Europe have? Richard Gowan answers: it has to work. Europe has no other option
Bosnia: The end of integration?
Debate over how to help a crisis-striken Bosnia ranges from involvement to encouragement. But a third, unpalatable option for a frustrated EU may lurk just behind the scenes: abandonment