The European Council on Foreign Relations

ECFR This Week: 28th of October

Date: 28th October 2011  |  Author: Nicholas Walton,

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Dear friends and supporters of ECFR,

Over this last week, the focus in our offices – as in much of Europe – has been on the outcome of efforts to form a plan that saves the euro. Did the politicians succeed? Here are some pieces that might inform the debate:

• Sebastian Dullien wrote ‘The euro summit: think twice before you celebrate’, pointing out that the summit may not solve the crisis, and might actually make it worse.
   
• Sebastian also wrote his € view blog post on the reasons why the EFSF solution to the crisis won’t work, and was interviewed in this ECFR Deutsch audio podcast (in German).
   
• Ulrike Guérot and Olaf Böhnke co-authored the latest Germany in Europe blogpost about the foreign policy impact of the euro, whether or not the summit has managed to deal with the immediate crisis.
   
• Thomas Klaualso looked at the wider impact of the crisis. He argues in this article that although the decisive French presidential system has been effective in dealing with the crisis, it might have to change as the Eurozone reforms and perhaps becomes more federal.
   
• Earlier in the week José Ignacio Torreblanca also looked at France – the firewall for the euro. This ECFR Español podcast also featured José Ignacio, discussing the crisis of the euro (in Spanish).

Elsewhere:

• Mark Leonard argued that the EU needed to develop a more coherent foreign policy to help the countries of the Arab Spring, and that enlargement-lite would no longer work in the Southern neighbourhood.
   
• I recorded this podcast with Piotr Zalewski, looking at Turkey’s response to the Arab Spring, and examining why Ankara is so concerned by events in Syria and the implications for Turkey’s Kurdish population.
   
• Finally, Andrew Wilson wrote this blog post – Latvia: the good guys, the bad guys and the Russians.

That’s it for this week. As ever, you can also sign up for our email that focuses on the best analysis from the Middle East/North Africa region, or track us down on Twitter (@ecfrheadlines) or Facebook. Our podcasts – in English, Spanish, French, German and Italian – are available via itunes, podhoster.com, or simply by going to the podcasts part of our website.

Have a good weekend,

Nicholas Walton.