Some in Russia maintain that the West promised there would be no NATO expansion eastwards, even towards what was soon to be the former German Democratic Republic (GDR), in exchange for accepting German unification. The West, particularly the US, maintains there was no such commitment. Which is true?
NATO can choose between building either bridges or borders, but it cannot ignore the vectors. Does it know what it wants? Does it want what it knows? Do its members, who have been cutting their military expenditure as a result of the crisis, know what they want, even if they agree on calling for an increase?
The US knows that a nuclear agreement with Iran is the best way to normalise foreign relations with Iran, to ensure it ceases to be a rogue state and embraces moderation. This should change the dynamics in the Middle East, even if Israel is unwilling.
With North Korea unwilling to halt WMD proliferation yet in the middle of an opening up process, the EU’s policy has to carefully balance non-proliferation activities with economic engagement.
Iraq has failed as a concept. It has been a failure of seeing democracy as only a question of votes, disregarding the protection and integration of minorities.
Has Putin won? In the short term, so it seems. In the long run it is much more uncertain because Western confidence in the Russian President, and in Russia, has evaporated.
The Elcano Global Presence Index methodology is always under review. In its military component, modern warfare and the latest trends in force projection pose an extraordinary challenge for future measurements.
What solution is possible for a stable and lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians? Is the end of the two-state solution?
This analysis focuses on the current jihadist threat to France and its interests abroad.
The crisis with Russia over the Crimea and the Ukraine in general has led the EU and NATO to start re-thinking the concept of deterrence, although in a very different context from that of the Cold War.
Al-Qaeda used to be a unitary centralised jihadist organisation. But post 9/11 it evolved into a decentralised terrorist structure within which it is now possible to identify a central nucleus –known as al-Qaeda Central (AQC) and still located in Pakistan’s tribal areas and adjacent territories in Afghanistan– and a number of branches or territorial extensions.
17 - 23 of 31 pages