Category: Blog

  • Helsinki 2.0 – An Old-School Solution to an Old-School Problem?

    Helsinki 2.0 – An Old-School Solution to an Old-School Problem?

    By Emmet Tuohy Commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Helsinki Final Act in 2015, OSCE chairman-in-office Ivica Dačić (then, as now, foreign minister of Serbia) called the agreement a “historic triumph of cooperation over conflict that set the stage for the end of the Cold War.”  In historical context, that is certainly true enough. Yet,…

  • To Sleep, Perchance to Reform: The Continued Relevance of the EU’s Eastern Partnership

    By Emmet Tuohy Much as the related “Ukraine fatigue” pandemic swept Washington in the aftermath of the 2004-05 Orange Revolution, Eastern Partnership (EaP) fatigue is alas an increasingly common illness among many contemporary observers, both within the EU and in the six partner countries. Even in Tallinn—the capital of one of the most enthusiastic and…

  • Armenian Dreams of Democracy

    Armenian Dreams of Democracy

    By Licínia Simão The month of April 2018 in Armenia was marked by an unprecedented level of popular mobilization demanding the resignation of Prime-minister Serzh Sargsyan and the end of the corrupt system he enabled as President over the last decade. He announced his resignation on April 23, following 11 days of protests in Yerevan and…

  • Baltic Cooperation and its Impact on Conditionality: the Case of Astravets Chance

    Baltic Cooperation and its Impact on Conditionality: the Case of Astravets Chance

    By Emmet Tuohy On the level of cooperation among the “B3” countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, progress towards accomplishing concrete and needed goals on energy (as well as transport) infrastructure has lagged badly. Not only has this lack of cooperation hampered each country’s ability to pursue its policies effectively in within Euro-Atlantic institutions, but it…

  • Ivanshvili Returns After Never Really Leaving

    By Lincoln Mitchell Bidzina Ivanishvili’s decision to return to a formal role as Chair of the Georgian Dream (GD) is more interesting for its timing than for the action itself. Ivanishvili, despite his protestations to the contrary, has never fully removed himself from Georgian political life since stepping down as Prime Minister in November of…

  • Azerbaijan’s New Law on Status of Armed Forces: Changes and Implications

    Azerbaijan’s New Law on Status of Armed Forces: Changes and Implications

    By Zaur Shiriyev A draft law on the “Status of the Armed Forces” was introduced by the Parliamentary Committee on Defense, Security and Anti-Corruption in mid-November, and on 1 December it was heard by Parliament. The amendments were adopted upon a second hearing with a majority vote on 15 December. The issue was first on the agenda back in…

  • The Elections and Kyrgyz-Kazakh Complications

    By Shairbek Juraev Can an exercise of democratic elections jeopardize a nation’s foreign relations? Not necessarily, but when combined with the non-democratic exercise of foreign policy, it probably can. The 2017 presidential elections in Kyrgyzstan, much praised as a rare case of peaceful power transfer from one elected leader to another in Central Asia, has also gained…

  • What Dreams May Come for Those that Dream of Europe

    By Yaroslava Babych If four years ago, someone suggested that a relatively small student protest camp in Ukraine, violently dispersed overnight by police , would have a profound influence on European history, many would simply laugh at the thought. For many years, EU policymakers have been walking a tightrope between integrating neighboring countries into its…