Transatlantic disunity and a lack of strategy over how to deal with Russia’s ultimatum is placing Europe’s security architecture at risk. The West has no choice but to put up a strong united front.
Civil society is under attack in the EU’s neighborhood. To defend democracy, academic freedom, and independent thought, Europe should step up its assistance to repressed voices.*
Differing threat perceptions in Western and Central Europe combined with democratic backsliding risk creating dangerous fractures within the EU. Building a shared understanding of today’s security challenges must go hand in hand with strengthening democracy in the bloc.
The fate of Serbia’s democracy is in the hands of its citizens. If the country is to move toward democratic accountability, it will be through bottom-up action, not the EU’s membership conditionality.
The EU’s Eastern Partnership has brought tangible benefits to its member countries but does not reflect today’s geopolitical realities. The approaching summit is a chance to tailor the initiative to partners’ diverging needs.
Together, the United States and Europe can modernize the post–1945 international order. This requires a strong commitment to democracy and the defense of the norms and values that define the West.
NATO struggles to respond to events falling in between the seams of collective defense, crisis management, and cooperative security. Allies should use the 2022 Strategic Concept to map out how they will deal with Russian and Chinese hybrid warfare.
Boris Johnson ignores the old truth that blaming scapegoats is one way to a run a campaign but no way to run a country. While this lasts, the flame of rational, outward-looking patriotism must be kept alight by Britain’s civil society.
A new coalition in Germany has ambitious plans to modernize a country that slipped into complacency and risk aversion. Its newfound energy could give the EU a much-needed impulse.
To avoid an open rule-of-law dialogue with the EU, Turkey is being selective in its areas of engagement with the bloc. The union must make clear that compartmentalizing EU-Turkey relations to suit Ankara’s domestic political convenience is not acceptable.
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