October 25, 2015
The recent flurry of diplomatic activity by EU leaders who are trying to slow down the migrant influx has not as yet yielded any tangible results. In truth, the situation has become so complicated that there are no good moves left in order to stabilize it. To illustrate this, one should consider the results… » read more
Posted by Spotlight on Geopolitics
October 12, 2015
Saturday’s horrific terrorist attack in Ankara where more than 100 people lost their lives brings to mind similar gruesome deeds, from New York in 2001 or London in 2007. The similarities between these events, unfortunately, end with the casualties. In Turkey, the opposition -in a rather desperate bid to thwart Erdogan’s party’s re-election chances- took… » read more
Posted by Spotlight on Geopolitics
September 25, 2015
A few days ago while seeing the hundreds of refugees from the Middle East flock on Greek ferries, buses, taxis and trains in their drive north to the Macedonian border, I recalled a 20-page seminar paper I was required to write on the question of frontiers at Sciences po Toulouse. The year was 2010, just… » read more
Posted by Spotlight on Geopolitics
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E.U., External Relations, Security , Balkans, Central Europe, E.U., Middle East, Security, Turkey |
September 13, 2015
For a continent long renowned for the excellent quality of its primary and secondary education, the beginning of the school year was until recently the season’s most important event. Not anymore. From Budapest to Brussels, government and Union officials have their hands full with the migrants’ crisis, which threatens to get out of control. TV… » read more
Posted by Spotlight on Geopolitics
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, E.U. |
August 31, 2015
Over the past fifteen years, quite a lot of criticism has been levelled by the “MIT gang”° against what has become known as the Washington consensus. Very little or no public discussion, however, has taken place about its close European offshoot, the Berlin consensus. Sure, there are some differences between the neoliberal economic thinking underpinning… » read more
Posted by Spotlight on Geopolitics
August 21, 2015
After three years of inhaling the diesel fumes of Paris, I have had the chance to spend a few weeks in Metsovo, in northern Greece. Known to the Greeks and the Bulgarians as Vlachs and to the rest of the Europeans as Aromanians, the Latin dialect-speaking community of Metsovo are a warm and welcoming lot… » read more
Posted by Spotlight on Geopolitics
August 3, 2015
In Wolfgang Schaeuble’s Germano-centric EU, no institution is more important – apart from his Politburo-like Eurogroup and the Office of the Chancellor – than his Ministry’s Council of Economic Advisers. The most influential adviser among them is Professor Hans-Werner Sinn from Munich, a Christian missionary-manqué turned tele-economist. Like any good German, Professor Sinn has but… » read more
Posted by Spotlight on Geopolitics
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E.U., Economy & Euro, English, EU Priorities and Opinion, Security |
July 30, 2015
To those in the know, the Italian peninsula was not only the cradle of the Roman Empire or Rome the centre of the Catholic faithful, but also the birthplace of capitalism and of countless statecraft innovations and institutions still widely used around the world today. During the middle ages, the Italian city-states thus discovered and… » read more
Posted by Spotlight on Geopolitics
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E.U., Economy & Euro, English, EU Priorities and Opinion, External Relations, Security |
July 23, 2015
Very few American experts grasp the motivations behind the construction of the European Union. As a result, American specialized literature abounds with misguided comparisons, such as that between the US Civil War from the 19th century and today’s tense situation between Europe’s North and South. Yes, the EEC was initially formed in 1957 to prevent… » read more
Posted by Spotlight on Geopolitics
July 19, 2015
Some seventeen centuries ago, emperor Diocletian realized that the Roman empire had grown too big and too diverse to be ruled from a single centre. Diocletian therefore decided to split it in two, the west ruled from Rome by a fellow army officer and the east controlled by himself. The east-west division became more or… » read more
Posted by Spotlight on Geopolitics
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E.U., Economy & Euro, EU Priorities and Opinion, External Relations |
