Waves of ambition: Russia’s military build-up in Crimea and the Black Sea
Russia’s capacity to carry out large-scale military operations against Black Sea states allows it to coerce and extort them
Wider Europe
To remain relevant in the region, the European Union needs a coherent and consistent strategy to promote its interests and values together with the political will to follow this through. ECFR’s Wider Europe programme was launched in 2007 with the aim of fostering this process.
Featured
The fall of the Afghan government and what it means for Europe
ECFR’s policy experts examine what the Taliban takeover means for countries and regions around the world: Europe, the US, the Middle East, Russia, China, Iran, Turkey, and the Sahel
Faltering fightback: Zelensky’s piecemeal campaign against Ukraine’s oligarchs
The campaign has encouraged Zelensky’s tendency towards governance through informal means. This has allowed him to act speedily – but it risks letting oligarchic influence return
Germany’s new government: Promising signs for Western Balkans EU integration
The emerging ‘traffic-light’ coalition government should recognise the dangers ranged around the EU on its Western Balkans borders – and help move EU integration along for the region’s states
How half-hearted sanctions put the future of Belarus at risk
The EU is currently assembling its fifth package of sanctions on Belarus. Here is what European governments and the Belarusian opposition should draw from how things have gone so far.
Russia, elections, and the West: Ten years later
If the Kremlin sees the Duma election result as a buffer that will allow it to safely prepare for a transition at the top, the Russian political system might still find a way to evolve. But, if it views the result as confirmation that the system works just fine, its ‘victory’ really is a Pyrrhic one.
Waves of ambition: Russia’s military build-up in Crimea and the Black Sea
Russia’s capacity to carry out large-scale military operations against Black Sea states allows it to coerce and extort them
Close to home: Germany’s state building challenge in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Germany insisted on its choice of new high representative. Now it needs to reveal if it has a plan to make the Bosnian state workable enough for the high representative institution to finally end.
Something for something: Biden, Zelensky, and America’s pre-eminence in Ukraine
Faced with a Russia that is still conducting a war in Ukraine and weaponising gas, Washington’s new deal with Kyiv could provide a real boost to Ukrainian defence and intelligence
The fall of the Afghan government and what it means for Europe
ECFR’s policy experts examine what the Taliban takeover means for countries and regions around the world: Europe, the US, the Middle East, Russia, China, Iran, Turkey, and the Sahel
Belarus’s creature of crisis: Two heads, one body
A year on from the falsified presidential election, two Belaruses now occupy the international arena. Neither the West nor Russia will be able to change this reality, but each will have to learn to live with both.
Pandemic trends: Serbia looks east, Ukraine looks west
Public attitudes in Ukraine and Serbia raise pressing questions about EU enlargement. If member states are to sustain this process, they will need to base it on a shared sense of belonging
Kyiv’s relations with Europe in the age of Nord Stream 2
What can and should the EU do to support Ukrainian sovereignty?
Publications
Waves of ambition: Russia’s military build-up in Crimea and the Black Sea
Russia’s capacity to carry out large-scale military operations against Black Sea states allows it to coerce and extort them
The fall of the Afghan government and what it means for Europe
ECFR’s policy experts examine what the Taliban takeover means for countries and regions around the world: Europe, the US, the Middle East, Russia, China, Iran, Turkey, and the Sahel
Faltering fightback: Zelensky’s piecemeal campaign against Ukraine’s oligarchs
The campaign has encouraged Zelensky’s tendency towards governance through informal means. This has allowed him to act speedily – but it risks letting oligarchic influence return
The path to recognition: Kosovo’s and Serbia’s evolving dialogue
The solution to the dispute between Kosovo and Serbia should be to create a societal consensus on both sides of the border
New energies: How the European Green Deal can save the EU’s relationship with Turkey
EU member states should help Turkey manage the impact of the new trade regulations the deal would bring in
Push back, contain, and engage: How the EU should approach relations with Russia
The bloc should reframe how it speaks of human rights and democracy, while developing closer security and military links with select neighbours
Useful enemies: How the Turkey-UAE rivalry is remaking the Middle East
Instead of using the UAE to push back against Turkey or vice versa, Europe should develop its own strategy on their rivalry
Decade of patience: How China became a power in the Western Balkans
As European and US ambivalence towards the Western Balkans persists, the region will be in increasing danger of falling into an endless spiral of competition between various foreign actors
Bosnia to war, to Dayton, and to its slow peace
It will be difficult to sustain progress for Bosnia or the region without a credible and clear EU accession process
Russia’s relative resilience: Why Putin feels vindicated by the pandemic
Covid-19 has damaged Russia’s economy and President Vladimir Putin’s political agenda
Articles
Germany’s new government: Promising signs for Western Balkans EU integration
The emerging ‘traffic-light’ coalition government should recognise the dangers ranged around the EU on its Western Balkans borders – and help move EU integration along for the region’s states
How half-hearted sanctions put the future of Belarus at risk
The EU is currently assembling its fifth package of sanctions on Belarus. Here is what European governments and the Belarusian opposition should draw from how things have gone so far.
Russia, elections, and the West: Ten years later
If the Kremlin sees the Duma election result as a buffer that will allow it to safely prepare for a transition at the top, the Russian political system might still find a way to evolve. But, if it views the result as confirmation that the system works just fine, its ‘victory’ really is a Pyrrhic one.
Close to home: Germany’s state building challenge in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Germany insisted on its choice of new high representative. Now it needs to reveal if it has a plan to make the Bosnian state workable enough for the high representative institution to finally end.
Something for something: Biden, Zelensky, and America’s pre-eminence in Ukraine
Faced with a Russia that is still conducting a war in Ukraine and weaponising gas, Washington’s new deal with Kyiv could provide a real boost to Ukrainian defence and intelligence
Belarus’s creature of crisis: Two heads, one body
A year on from the falsified presidential election, two Belaruses now occupy the international arena. Neither the West nor Russia will be able to change this reality, but each will have to learn to live with both.
Pandemic trends: Serbia looks east, Ukraine looks west
Public attitudes in Ukraine and Serbia raise pressing questions about EU enlargement. If member states are to sustain this process, they will need to base it on a shared sense of belonging
Bulgaria’s abstention from the fight against climate change
Bulgaria’s abstention on the European Climate Law not only isolates the country within the EU once again but also reveals two familiar shortfalls in Bulgarian diplomacy
The great game: A geopolitical Euros
If policymakers watch closely enough, football might just provide the perspective and insights they need to advance a geopolitical Europe
The EU and Belarus: First steps to flexing European geopolitical muscle
The arrest of Raman Pratasevich changed the calculus for EU capitals, which agreed new sanctions with real bite. The EU could finally be succeeding in its search for strategic sovereignty.
Specials
Russia in the grey zones
What role does Russia play in the breakaway regions of Eastern Europe?
Life in the grey zones: Reports from Europe’s breakaway regions
Locked in a shadowy life between war and peace, “grey zones” now litter the map of Eastern Europe
Minsk Monitor
Following high level ministerial meetings on Ukraine, ECFR's Wider Europe team report on the implementation the Minsk agreement
Podcasts
Kyiv’s relations with Europe in the age of Nord Stream 2
What can and should the EU do to support Ukrainian sovereignty?
New Energies: The European Green Deal and the EU-Turkey relationship
How will the European Green Deal affect the EU’s relationship with Turkey?
How the EU should respond to Belarus
What will be the impact of the EU and US measures against Belarus? And what should be next steps also ahead of the EU-US summit on 15 June?
China’s strategic approach to the Western Balkans
How much influence does China already ha be in the Western Balkans and how should European policymakers react?
How the Turkey-UAE Rivalry is remaking the Middle East
How can the EU prevent the Turkey-UAE rivalry from destabilising European security and foreign policy?
Belarus’s brutal politics
What kind of implications do the developments in Belarus have for the wider neighbourhood and Europe?
Stranger in Moscow: Borrell’s unwelcome visit
What lessons can be drawn from Josep Borrell’s controversial visit to Moscow?
Top ten foreign policy trends in 2021
Mark Leonard and Jeremy Shapiro predict ten bright and bold policy projections for the year to come
Nagorno-Karabakh: Armenia and Azerbaijan’s thawing of the ‘frozen conflict’
The contested Nagorno-Karabakh region is at the heart of a decades-long armed standoff between neighbours Armenia and Azerbaijan. The…
Protest movement in Belarus: Will Lukashenko survive the current state (of) crisis?
In this week’s episode, Jeremy Shapiro stepped in as host and welcomes senior policy fellows Kadri Liik and Andrew Wilson as well as political scientist…
In the media
he problem is that we have two well functioning institutions in Ukraine that are under siege by oligarchs, but also by forces within the president’s own party, which is the National Anti-corruption
Gustav Gressel comments on the implementation of judicial reforms and anti-corruption measures in Ukraine
It could set a precedent and undermine the whole European cooperation. If every member state can decide for itself whether to comply with common EU law, there is no EU.
Piotr Buras argues that the EU cannot leave the ruling by Poland’s Constitutional Court unchallenged
Piotr Buras comments on the standing of the national-conservative ruling party Law and Justice (PiS) in Poland after the Polish Constitutional Court’s major ruling undermining the primacy of EU law
The big and acute threat is not Polexit, but that the Polish government will create space for an autocracy in the middle of the EU
Piotr Buras analyses the implications of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal’s ruling questioning the supremacy of EU law