Opinion pieces

  • The new Russia and how to deal with it, by Charles Grant
    Open democracy, 18 September 2008

    Dmitri Medvedev compares '8/8', the date of Georgia's attack on South Ossetia, with 9/11. The Russian president is right that the war in Georgia, and the way the West reacted, have fundamentally changed the worldview of many Russians.

  • Conflit russo-géorgien: un nouveau souffle pour l'OTAN, by Charles Grant
    RIA Novosti, 09 September 2008

    Le conflit entre la Géorgie et la Russie donnera une nouvelle impulsion à l'OTAN, a estimé dans un entretien accordé à RIA Novosti mardi le directeur du Centre britannique pour la Réforme européenne, Charles Grant.

  • Europe must bring Ukraine into the fold, by Tomas Valasek
    , 07 September 2008

    In a spectacular case of bad timing, Ukraine’s government all but collapsed last week. President Viktor Yushchenko withdrew most of his deputies from the ruling coalition with Yulia Tymoshenko, the prime minister.

  • The bear's Achilles heel, by Charles Grant
    The Guardian, 15 August 2008

    For many American commentators, plucky little Georgia has been the victim of Russian imperialism. The Guardian's Seumas Milne takes an simplistic view: Russia is blameless for a war caused by US "expansion".

  • Can the west help prevent an all-out war between Russia and Georgia?, by Tomas Valasek
    The Guardian, 08 August 2008

    This week, Georgia made a bold gamble: it moved forces into South Ossetia; a province of Georgia that broke free in the early 1990s, in an attempt to re-assert its authority over parts or all of it.

  • Should we care that world trade talks have collapsed?, by Katinka Barysch
    The Daily Telegraph, 31 July 2008

    After nine days of fierce haggling, trade ministers from the 153 countries that are in the World Trade Organisation gave up this week. It is not clear whether the Doha round of multilateral trade talks - seven years in the making - is now dead. Should we care?

  • The era of the grand treaty is over, by Hugo Brady
    The Guardian, 16 June 2008

    Ireland has sent Europe into tumult by garrotting the Lisbon treaty at the ballot box. The possibility of resuscitating the treaty is slight. Given the large turnout, a second referendum on the text is likely to be ruled out by Irish politicians as unfeasible.

  • Europe must build a strategic alliance with China, by Charles Grant
    Financial Times, 09 June 2008

    The shift of power from west to east, as the US-dominated international order becomes multipolar, is evident. But the nature of the emerging system is far from clear. Will it be competitive, based on the assertion of national power, or co-operative, framed by international rules?