Egypt is undergoing the greatest moment of political change in a generation. Mubarak’s stale regime has fallen, and with it years of European and American policy. Is it not now time to begin thinking about a new approach to the southern Neighbourhood, one that puts constitutional democracy more explicitly to the fore?
Should the European Union move the Common Security and Defence Policy away from its near-exclusive concentration on ‘crisis management’? How has it slipped silently into this deeply reactive and interventionist trap? And why must it escape?
A team of experts from the Centre for European Policy Studies, the Egmont Institute, European Policy Centre and the University of Leuven joined forces to produce a timely book on European diplomacy, on the occasion of the launch of the European Union’s External Action Service.
With the rise of numerous major powers over the past decade, has the time not now come for the European Union and its Member States to begin thinking about the geographic aspects of their power?
What events during the last ten years are geopolitically significant? Which of those events are likely to have long-lasting implications for international relations during the twenty-first century?
Is nationalism really the bogey-man it is often made out to be? Should pro-Europeans, in particular, dust off some nationalist ideology and use it to help bind together Europeans into a more progressive and deeply integrated political community?
Will the new Franco-British military entente lead to a closer European military enterprise under ‘neo-Norman’ guidance? Or will it lead both Britain and France, along with the rest of Europe, to Saxondom? Only time will tell – along with careful consideration by London and Paris.
The European Union is certainly active through its Common Security and Defence Policy: witness the large number of past and present military and civilian operations, across the globe. But have these operations generated strategic effect? Have they contributed to achieving long-term European policy objectives
Alex Stubb, the Finnish foreign secretary, has called for a new and more dignified foreign policy to help promote human rights and democracy. But will it work? Or is it as fantastic as the approach the European Union currently adheres to? And in which case, is it also bound to fail?
It is time to scrap Trident. It is too expensive and inefficient. Britain and France should work together to maintain a similar level of nuclear deterrent but with only half the cost.