... the INF Treaty is understandable. On the one hand, the French government has no desire to open a new front of opposition with NATO, whose relations with France are complicated as it is and which has already fully aligned with the US on the INF Treaty. ... ... at the now-vacant position of foreign policy leader of Europe, including regarding Russian, which is very important for the European Union. Even less would he wish to surrender the issue of the INF Treaty (with its direct and fundamental bearing on the ...
... political symbols.
When the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia was recognised in August 2008, it was the Caucasus that saw the precedent of changed borders between the former Soviet republics.
It was in the Caucasus that Georgia, in its bid for NATO membership, held a referendum on acceding to the alliance and over two-thirds of Georgians voted for accession. Consequently, strategic cooperation with NATO was, in addition to rhetoric,
bolstered
by a popular vote.
The Trans-Caucasus is the only ...
When NATO was created, future peace between Germany and its neighbors was yet far from secured
It is today sadly forgotten, that NATO was created not with one, but with two objectives. The second objective of NATO was to retain inner peace, that is, keep ...
... it is clear to any politician in Central or Eastern Europe that, from the point of view of western identity, EU membership significantly outweighs NATO membership. However, becoming a member of the European Union is far more complicated than joining NATO. Accession to the European Union requires a far more profound (and more painful) socioeconomic and political transformation of the candidate country than NATO membership. It even took the United Kingdom 12 years (from 1961 to 1973) to become a member of the European Union....
... the principal trading partner, and a prime source of technology and investment. Yet despite being an economic powerhouse, the European Union is dismissed by Russians as a geopolitical and strategic player. When it comes to world politics or geostrategy,... ... time in Russia-EU relations, with intense feelings of malaise on both sides.
Despite the ongoing U.S.-Russia confrontation, the NATO-Russia military standoff in Europe is still relatively low-level. While preparing for various contingencies, neither side ...
Dmitry Trenin on Russia's successes abroad and why resisting NATO expansion to the east was a fundamental mistake.
Vladimir Putin has been in power for 20 years, but the time has not yet come to pass final judgment on his rule, including in the foreign policy sphere. The situation is dynamic, and the future,...
... followed the declaratory “five principles.”
Mark Entin, Ekaterina Entina:
Testing by the Council of Europe
However, the European Union cannot continue to maintain its integrity on the “Russian issue” forever without moving beyond the “five ... ... criticism from the numerous opponents of a rapprochement with Moscow, and EU policy will devolve into its lowest common denominator from among the positions of its members every single time. Furthermore, since new problems will continue to pop up for bureaucrats ...
... enlargement and the US military infrastructure deployment in Central Europe. One can argue that the Russian strategic culture is rooted in history, but, as I see it, it does not fully capture the new security realities of the XXI century. As for the European Union, it has essentially outsourced its traditional security agenda to the United States and NATO. It is not yet clear whether the idea of an EU 'strategic autonomy from Washington becomes anything more than an idea. This is why I emphasize the 'soft' security agenda between Russia and EU — here the asymmetry is not so striking.
— The network ...
This new ELN policy brief looks at ways to reduce the risk of military confrontation between Russia and NATO, namely in the Baltic region. The authors argue that steps to ensure military stability are not only possible, but are also mutually beneficial.
This new ELN policy brief looks at ways to reduce the risk of military confrontation between Russia ...
... justify this choice for, as at the Congress of Vienna in 1815, it was about integrating a former adversary into a single regional system, or as in Versailles, its exclusion from such a system of postwar relations.
The double enlargement, i.e. of the NATO and the EU, as well as incomplete, in terms of Chapter VIII of the UN Charter, institutionalization of the OSCE (as opposed, for example, to the African Union) have proved to be expressions of so short-sighted a policy. Russia has been invited to ...