At a lively conference on relations between the EU and Russia in London on 17th September a number of speakers took as their starting-point the fact that the new Commission was reviewing the state of these relations. It was uncertain what the outcome of this review would be. Two contrasting analyses were offered by the panel....Read More

In moves that signify their strong desire to strengthen bilateral cooperation, the European Union and Vietnam have reached milestone agreements in recent months. On 30 June 2019, they signed a free trade agreement (FTA) and an investment protection agreement (IPA). Over a month later, on August 5, they inked a new defence agreement. In many...Read More

Both the EU and India are viewed very favorably in Central Asia. As the region is now stabilizing, integrating and slowly opening to the outside world, it provides tremendous opportunities for the EU and India to increase their engagement further, both individually and possibly also jointly. This paper highlights the respective European and Indian strategies...Read More

The ‘America First’ Endgame argues that we are currently witnessing the ‘endgame’ of the international system established by the USA in the immediate post-WWII period. It is against this background that the US has enacted a new monetary, fiscal, trade and foreign policy mix, ‘America First’, which amounts to a coherent and comprehensive financial war...Read More

In this paper, we assess the relation between immigration and unemployment for a sample of 15 EU countries between 1997 and 2016. We estimate separate effects for Northern and Southern Countries based on the differences between the two groups in terms of skill intensity and flexibility of labour market adjustments. We use a panel Error...Read More

This paper draws attention to Max Weber’s commitment to federal democracy in a series of newspaper articles in 1917, which he wrote in the face of Germany’s military dictatorship.  He argued for the division of executive, administrative and political functions between the Reich and the separate German states, not unlike the constitution of today’s German...Read More

As relations between the EU and Russia remain frosty, Moscow has pivoted towards Beijing in search of deeper strategic cooperation. How can Europe re-engage with a Russia increasingly focused on (Eur)asia? This week marks the five-year anniversary of the Maidan Revolution, which set in motion the events that would lead to the Russian annexation of...Read More

A frequent criticism of the Prime Minister is that she prematurely triggered the Article 50 negotiations in March 2017 and did so without a realistic plan for their conduct. If she had waited longer and planned better, her critics contend, she could have negotiated a more acceptable Withdrawal Agreement and Political Declaration than the texts...Read More

Just days before the Islamic Republic of Iran celebrates its 40th anniversary on February 11, Europe has offered it a gift. Ever since last May, when Washington pulled out of the nuclear deal signed under then-President Barack Obama and reimposed sanctions on Iran, Europe has promised to soften the economic blow by offering Iran a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV). Last week, after months of...Read More

Sigmund Freud, the public affairs industry, and the internet may all have played a part, write Isabelle Stanley and Rod Dowler. We all depend in our social, business, financial, and political affairs, on a shared currency of trust. But we have somehow devalued this currency and breaches of public trust have recently grown to epidemic...Read More