Reports

When it is in dire need, Italy has a history of reaching for figures outside the political spectrum to right the ship of the state. The coming to Rome of former ECB President Mario Draghi fits that pattern, but only to a point. 

In their dealings with Washington, Moscow and Ankara, European powers and also Brussels make little attempt to understand the other side. Behaving as if they were morally superior, shortsighted leaders ignore geopolitical realities and put Europe’s vital interests at longer-term risk

In early 2020, France began considering government reforms meant to boost efficiency and reduce centralization. While the pandemic delayed the project, Paris will soon return to the task and attempt to give local governments more freedom. However, the plan could face backlash from the left, and could easily be derailed ...

When Poland's and Hungary’s leaders jointly threatened to veto the EU’s Covid recovery fund last December, they argued it was in defense of their sovereignty. The nations’ historical traumas notwithstanding, both governments are rumbling down the path toward authoritarianism. 

In the aftermath of the most recent fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh, Turkey has emerged as a key player in the Caucasus. This new status will increase its pull over some of its smaller neighbor states. Georgia could soon find itself seeking security guarantees from Ankara, instead of Western organizations – a ...

Over the past several years, Turkey has become a major player in energy deliveries from the Caucasus to Europe, and its deepening partnership with Azerbaijan has only solidified its position as a regional power. As Russia’s grip on the region weakens, it could lead to serious security concerns, with Ankara ...

Politics have become increasingly dysfunctional in Western democracies. As public debate degenerates into warfare, citizens’ faith in the system wanes. Much of the blame is rightly put on the doorstep of political parties, but can they be fixed? The most enduring republic in Europe’s history offers surprising insight.

The Covid-19 pandemic has capped a decade of economic crises that the European Central Bank has had to deal with. The bank’s tools to keep countries’ finances afloat and investors’ confidence solid have been unprecedented. Weaning them off low interest rates, financial injections and high debt will be its next ...

In the Covid-19 crisis, the Italian government sees an opportunity to address the country's long-standing economic ills. Its plan has been to renationalize businesses and use EU funds to boost spending. But as government involvement in the economy increases, foreign investment is being discouraged and private businesses crowded out.

In the United Kingdom, as elsewhere, Covid-19 has exposed deep rifts in society and devastated the economy. And yet, it has also brought families together, showed the value of immigrant communities and reminded people of what really matters. In our opening essay for our 2021 outlook series, Lord Alton of ...

The Visegrad Group, consisting of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, initially had little political significance. But with pressure from EU institutions and other member states increasing, the forum has grown in significance. And though it originally wanted to exclude Austria, recently Vienna has found much in common with ...

With the rise of a new Spanish left, the postwar and post-transition consensus was disrupted and old wounds have reopened. Because the ruling leftist coalition of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez needs to compromise with extremist parties, politics is radicalizing on both ends of the spectrum. This will gradually erode national ...

Tension has marked recent relations between the European Union and Turkey, from personal insults between leaders to spats over exploration rights in the Mediterranean Sea. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has made conciliatory statements recently, but the question is whether anything can come of them. There are pathways to avoid ...

The Muslim Brotherhood has long been establishing European networks to disseminate the teaching of Islam, and governments have been slow to react. However, recent terror attacks could lead to a harder stance from EU leaders. Islamic organizations and their backers are now waiting to see if Europe will present a ...

Italian politics has been reshaped by the coronavirus. Dissatisfaction with the populist star Matteo Salvini has meant an opportunity for a new rising figure, Giorgia Meloni. The former Berlusconi minister has brought back the networks and rhetoric of the traditional right wing, while cultivating ties with conservatives in Europe and ...

In an atmosphere of panic over the Covid-19 crisis, European governments are enacting more and more open-ended measures that are often of dubious utility for containing the pandemic but severely restrict personal freedom, privacy and entrepreneurship. Alarmingly, citizens’ rights enshrined in constitutions are being set aside.

Britain’s political parties have been fading in the 21st century in terms of membership, popular support and relevance to citizens. To many, traditional parties seem more a part of the problem than the solution. Can parties be salvaged? Do we still need them? David Alton, a member of the House ...

By urging NATO and the European Union to show their support for Belarus, Lithuania is risking Russia’s ire. Military intervention is unlikely but cannot be ruled out, given the Baltic state’s border with the  strategic Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. However, the most likely course of action for the Putin administration ...

Like a white knight, China stepped in after Portugal’s 2011 bankruptcy with billions of dollars in investment. After centuries of trade and cultural exchange, it helped the relationship between the two countries flourish. Now China sees Portugal as a crucial cog in its strategy to exert influence and expand trade ...

The British government’s posturing in talks with the EU is testing goodwill in European capitals. Apart from risking a no-deal outcome on January 1, 2020, it casts a shadow over Britain’s prospects for close security and defense cooperation with Germany and France after Brexit is completed. 

The German presidency of the European Union is likely to have a mixed legacy. On one hand, the financial packages agreed should be considered a French-German political success. On the other, the fiscal consequences of the new measures will allow the European Union to raise debt on an unprecedented scale, ...

Twenty-five years ago, peace talks in Dayton, Ohio, ended the Bosnian war. However, the resulting political compromise has not allowed Bosnia and Herzegovina to develop a functioning state. Republika Srpska’s ability to veto Bosnian government policy is creating near-constant gridlock, a situation that has delayed the country’s accession to the ...

Modern-day iconoclasts are removing objects and symbols of Western civilization as part of moralistic campaigns. By doing so, they are falsifying history and attacking the very foundation of democracy.

Russian intervention in Belarus could take many forms: formal assistance granted at the request of the collapsing Lukashenko regime; a stabilization operation amid chaotic conditions or the armed invasion of a new Belarusian state controlled by the opposition. All those options would entail massive economic and political costs for Moscow, ...