Sixteen years have passed since the election of the first female Chancellor in Germany’s history, Merkel proved to be one of the longest-serving democratically-elected European leaders ever existed marking her decision to not seek re-election in 2021, it is the end of an era and it leaves everyone wondering what is going to happen next, as her strongest feature in …

The European Union has for years been pursuing greater cooperation in the field of defence in order to maintain its security and its position in the world.  Yet, the idea of a European army is a particularly contentious one with strong advocates for and against. Ultimately, a distinct European army is still not a reality due to the lack of a common strategic culture and the political will …

  One of the original achievements of European integration was to create a Union of states characterized by the absence of conflicts both between the member states and with third-party states, which have shaped European history for many decades. Ever since its rise the Ottoman Empire has been one of these third-party actors. This makes it clear that the only …

Following a 30-year period of “non-aligned” foreign policy after its independence, Ukraine’s commitment to a transatlantic orientation in its strategic culture, including the pursuit of NATO membership, was dramatically reinforced as a result of the 2014 crisis (Glebov, 2017). According to the vast majority of foreign policy experts, joining NATO would help Ukraine achieve three major foreign and security policy …

  Jacques Delors once defined the first-ever project of long-lasting peace and cooperation between a union of sovereign states, i.e., the European Communities and subsequently the European Union (EU) as an “identified political object” characterized by uncertainty and inexplicability (Zielonka, 2006, p.4). Just like many of those cooperative projects aiming at developing integration and closeness between member states (hereafter MSs) …

August 23, 2021 marked the day of launching the International Crimean Platform which has been initiated by the president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky  as an international response and moreover, foreign policy instrument against the occupation of Crimea by Russia. The summit was solely dedicated to the illegal annexation of Crimea and to bringing the issue back in the agenda of the …

The presidential election in Belarus on August 9, 2020 was followed by an extraordinary surge of social protests against Aleksandar Lukashenka’s regime. The flagrant fraud of election results, which declared Lukashenka the winner with approximately 80% of the vote, was the catalyst for these protests. As a result of widespread protests and strikes, the government responded with brute force, beatings …

On Tuesday, July 20, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke at the 47th anniversary of the Turkish invasion of the island of Cyprus. Therein, he emphasized that any future peace talks depends on a two-state solution declaring that “(w)e are right and we will defend our right to the end” (Aljazzera, 2021). Nicosia insists on its sovereignty over the whole …

The Pandemic Emergency Purchase Program (PEPP) is a non-standard monetary policy measure in line with the other non-standard measures such as the APP, adopted in 2015. The APP includes the Public Sector Purchase Program (PSPP) for the purchase of bonds issued by euro area Member States, recognized agencies, international organizations and supranational institutions located in the eurozone. Compliance of the …

The Snap parliamentary election that was held in Moldova on July 11, 2021 has caught the worldwide attention as in Moldova’s recent history a Pro-western party leaded by President Maia Sandu gained the victory in the election (Politico 2021, “Moldova on pro-EU course after elections”). The election process itself was positively assessed by the joint observation mission from the OSCE …