Research
Obama, Russia and Europe
01 June 2009
On the first glance, Barack Obama has subordinated US foreign policy to the interests of Moscow. He has slowed down NATO enlargement, stopped urging Russia to democratise and hinted that the US might not build missile defence sites in Europe.
Winners and losers in the new geopolitics
01 June 2009
Both the global economic crisis and the arrival of Barack Obama are transforming the geopolitical landscape. But how exactly is not yet apparent.
Protectionism and the economic crisis: So far, so good?
01 June 2009
For much of the year, the spectre of the 1930s has loomed large over the global economy.
Issue 66 - 2009
29 May 2009
- Winners and losers in the new geopolitics , Charles Grant
- Protectionism and the economic crisis: So far, so good?, Philip Whyte
- The EU should do more to support UN peacekeeping in Africa, Richard Gowan
Why the European elections matter
29 May 2009
Between June 4th and June 7th, Europeans will cast their votes to elect a new European Parliament (EP). Recent opinion polls indicate that they will do so without much enthusiasm. Indeed, there is every chance that the average turnout will be the lowest ever – it has fallen at every election since the first time that Europeans directly elected their MEPs in 1979, and sank to 45.6 per cent in 2004. But despite the prevailing apathy, this election matters.
Making a success of the EAS
21 May 2009
If the Irish people vote yes to the Lisbon treaty at the second attempt, and the Czechs, Germans and Poles also ratify, the EU will set up an ‘external action service’ or EAS. This new institution promises to make the Union’s common foreign and security policy more effective.
Are the British the new French?
05 May 2009
The British tend to deride France as a hopelessly statist, anti-entrepreneurial country full of bolshie workers intent on extracting disproportionate rewards for their labour and a state too weak to resist them. This characterisation is not wholly inaccurate.
Choices for Europe
01 May 2009
CER - University of Birmingham
Sluggish economic growth, high unemployment, ageing populations, climate change and security challenges on the borders of Europe have been some of the top priorities on the European agenda since the early 1990s. The EU has tried to tackle these issues, notably through its commitments to reduce greenhouse gases and its Lisbon strategy for economic growth.
Will Spain remain a small country?
01 May 2009
Spain punches below its weight in EU policy-making. Since Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero became prime minister, five years ago, Spanish influence in the EU has diminished.
Narrowing the Atlantic: The way forward for EU-US trade and investment
29 April 2009
The financial crisis has provoked a dramatic contraction in world trade. With economic activity declining and job losses rising, protectionist pressures are mounting.
Towards a new system of financial regulation
23 April 2009
The financial crisis is often portrayed as the product of weak regulation in the Anglosphere. But it is more accurate to think of it as the result of flawed thinking (and policy) across the global financial system as a whole. One reason is that countries outside the Anglosphere have also experienced unsustainable credit and housing market booms.
Towards a better EU migration policy
08 April 2009
Over the last decade, EU countries have experienced a rapid rise in both legal and illegal migration, mostly from Turkey, Morocco, Albania, Algeria and Serbia. Each spring and summer, Mediterranean member-states struggle to cope as migrants perish attempting to reach Europe from North Africa in unseaworthy and over-crowded boats.
The G20 summit – a distraction?
03 April 2009
The good news first. The summit delivered more than expected. The trebling of the funds available to the IMF goes well beyond anything expected and is very welcome.
Europe's flagging response to the financial crisis
01 April 2009
Since the 1980s, many of the largest economies in the EU have developed unenviable reputations for protracted economic downturns followed by sluggish recoveries.
Carbon price collapse threatens the EU's climate agenda
01 April 2009
The EU’s emissions trading scheme (ETS) works by capping the output of carbon dioxide and then distributing allowances to emit the gas to large energy users.
In the name of EU solidarity
01 April 2009
Is a new iron curtain threatening to divide the European Union? Hungary’s prime minister, Ferenc Gyurcsany, raised the spectre last month, when he warned that the eastern members were descending into economic mayhem while the richer EU countries were looking on unsympathetically.
What the economic crisis means for the EU's eastern policy
01 April 2009
The EU's new 'eastern partnership' risks being undermined by the economic crisis. The initiative offers countries like Armenia and Ukraine fresh incentives, such as free-trade agreements and easier visa regimes, to adopt European norms of democracy and open markets.
The Europeans at the London summit
01 April 2009
Christine Lagarde, the French finance minister, threatens to walk out of the London G20 summit unless France gets its way on tougher financial regulation. The toppled Czech Prime Minister, Mirek Topolanek, who happens to hold the EU presidency, describes the US fiscal stimulus as “the road to hell”. Not one EU leader deems it necessary to support Gordon Brown publicly when he tries to drum up support for a more concerted international effort to revive the global economy.
Issue 65 - 2009
27 March 2009
- Europe's flagging response to the financial crisis , Philip Whyte
- Carbon price collapse threatens the EU's climate agenda, Simon Tilford
- In the name of EU solidarity, Katinka Barysch
What if the eurozone broke up?
23 March 2009
The future of the euro may not be secure, warned the CER’s Simon Tilford in a January 2009 essay. The current economic crisis threatens to exacerbate the tensions within the eurozone, and an insolvent member-state... could default and leave the eurozone. Since January, the economic crisis has deepened further, and the eurozone’s weakest economies have come under even greater strain.