Suchergebnisse

European leaders were taken by surprise by the Ukraine crisis and Russia's response to the Eastern Partnership. They should not have been: all questions raised by the Ukraine crisis first emerged with the 2008 war in Georgia. European leaders appear not to have grasped the fundamentally different forms of integration that the EU and Russia have proposed–-and especially the fact that voluntary European integration in the Eastern Partnership effectively negates Russia's need for weak, authoritarian states to form part of its restored empire. In responding to the crisis, EU leaders face a challenge from Russia that is asymmetric: Russia uses direct threats to the sovereignty of the EU's eastern neighbours, especially through unresolved conflicts, matters the EU is ill-equipped to handle. Finding ways to remedy this gap will be an important task for the EU in the immediate future.

The year 2013 was supposed to be momentous for Turkey's strongman, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as he established himself as the single most powerful Turkish politician since Kemal Ataturk. But toward the end of the year, the tables turned. Massive protests broke out across the country against Erdogan's heavy-handed repression of demonstrators seeking to preserve Gezi Park, one of the last green areas in Istanbul. Erdogan's political evolution can basically be described as a ride from radical to moderate, and back again. He emerged as a young firebrand Islamist, famous for his scathing disdain for Turkey's secular order. In his ambitions to turn Turkey into a presidential republic and accede to the presidency, Erdogan faced one key obstacle: his longtime brother-in-arms, Abdullah Gul, who held the post. The Gezi Park protests of summer 2013 and the December 2013 corruption probe that led to the resignation of four ministers may seem on the surface quite different. Adapted from the source document.

The fallout of Russia's invasion of Georgia has yet to be seriously addressed; Armenia and Azerbaijan are edging toward a new war; and the situation in the North Caucasus is going from bad to worse.

Moscow's ambitions… directly undermine the entire European project of peace, freedom, and prosperity.

The attacks on New York and Washington on September 11, 2001, enhanced the importance of both the Transcaucasus and Central Asia to American security. Overflight rights through the Caucasus to Central Asia and Afghanistan are vital components of the ongoing military effort there by both U.S. and NATO forces. But this region has multiple conflicts and fault-lines. As multiple recent crises show, Russo-Georgian tensions connected with South Ossetia and Abkhazia could erupt into open violence at any time. The author outlines the possibilities for conflict in this region and the qualities that make it strategically important, not only for Washington and Moscow, but also increasingly for Europe ; What is at stake in Georgia? -- U.S. interests in the South Caucasus -- Russian policies -- Independence and the Russian "reconquista" -- The slipping of the Caucasus, 1996-99 -- Implications for the West -- Implications ; Svante E. Cornell ; "February 2007." ; Parallel als Buch-Ausg. erschienen