According to a senior Foreign Office official in 1939, it was better for Britain to become an American dominion than a German Gau. This statement epitomised both Britain’s refusal to compromise, and its future readiness to surrender sovereignty to the USA, rather than share it with Europe. His statement proved…
Read More
1. Introduction There is a well-known adage frequently attributed to Einstein to the effect that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. This, I suggest, is the kind of insanity which characterizes successive attempts by the Greek and Turkish sides to the Cyprus…
Read More
There is no doubt whatsoever that Russia today has returned to the international scene as a leading world power, after labouring hard for two decades. Its immense geographical area, its special role in ensuring international peace and security and its global interests made it imperative for Russia to pursue a…
Read More
It was hailed by many as an historic day in Strasbourg. The Polish MEP Jerzy Buzek was overwhelmingly chosen as the European Parliament’s president – the first time a leader from the former Soviet bloc is leading a major EU institution. In his inaugural speech, Buzek said: “Once upon…
Read More
1. Reshaping the Pillars of Global Economic Governance The Bretton Woods institutions are the organizations set up as the result of the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference held in July 1944. Representatives of forty-four Allied nations met in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, which led to the signing of…
Read More
WRITTEN BY MR. ZORAN RISTIC The Balkans have always been the backyard of European political planning, the ‘periphery of Europe’ (Chebeleu, Trian: ‘Attitudes of the USA and the USSR towards the South-East European Region’, European Security in the 1990’s: Problems of South-East Europe, Rhodes, Greece, 6-7 September 1991). Throughout history,…
Read More
At one point during my adolescence, an elder of my church took me aside to speak to me about walls. Walls, he said, are a protection against things on the other side, the same way religious rules and regulations are a protection against the world outside. Hence, you should feel…
Read More
Unilateral implementation of the Stabilization and Association Agreement? The Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) between the European Union and the Republic of Serbia was signed exactly one year ago. It is a comprehensive and binding document with clearly defined bilateral obligations. Although the commencement of the SAA ratification process and…
Read More
Receiving President Medvedev and the Russian Security Initiative When President of Russia, Dmitri Medvedev, visited Finland in April, he gathered a relatively mild interest compared with the attention that meetings of the presidents of the two neighbours usually got during the Cold War. Stiff appearances and official communiqués were not…
Read More
START-1 treaty forms to this day the cornerstone of the prevailing nuclear arms control regime. The treaty will expire at the end of the current year. It needs to be reviewed and updated. Renegotiating START-1 was not a priority for the previous US administration; an attitude that bothered Moscow. The…
Read More