The European Council on Foreign Relations

Democracy put to the test

2011-11-24T17:08:44+00:00

Just as the mechanisms that made democracy function in city states were not adequate for governing nation states, representative democracies today are showing themselves incapable of managing, effectively and democratically, the system that is emerging in Europe.

The end of the European dream?

2011-07-19T14:41:41+00:00

In a summary of the first chapter of his new book, The fragmentation of European power, José Ignacio Torreblanca describes how the optimism with which Europe entered the new millenium has so quickly turned to gloom, and asks whether the new reality is here to stay.

Five reasons why Europe is cracking

2011-05-17T07:34:19+00:00

Europe is cracking along key fault lines: its values, the euro, foreign policy and leadership. If there is no radical change, the integration process could collapse, leaving the future of Europe as an economically and politically relevant entity up in the air.

Moral anaesthesia and the death of Bin Laden

2011-05-13T09:14:02+00:00

The White House isn't happy about answering uncomfortable questions over Bin Laden's death: in the logic of war, the details of his demise don't matter. But in the logic of justice they are important.

Springtime in Morocco

2011-04-12T11:38:03+00:00

Morocco's heterogenerous protest movement wants “liberty, democracy and equality,” but that doesn't mean the end of the monarchy. The king's role in constitutional reform is problematic, but could also be part of the solution.

Why Spain should worry about Morocco

2011-02-11T13:21:47+00:00

France didn't see what was coming in Tunisia, nor did the US in Egypt. Spain is in danger of making the same mistake with Morocco, where a protest planned for 20th February seems to have much in common with the popular movements that brought such dramatic change to those countries.

Don’t just speak with one voice: Act!

2011-02-01T09:17:15+00:00

EU member states worry too much about speaking with one voice. But endless unified expressions of 'interest and concern' about the situation in Tunisia and Egypt show that the problem is that others aren't listening because we often have little to say.

Chinese Democracy

2010-12-16T15:11:31+00:00

It is easy to resign oneself to the idea that 'Chinese democracy' is an oxymoron. Yet the potential implications of democratisation in China are so huge that the possiblity of it happening is worth imagining. Lu Xiaobo allows us to do so, if only for a few hours.

Model, partner, rival

2010-12-03T13:40:28+00:00

Germany was a model for the post-Franco rebuilding of Spanish democracy, and for a time was perhaps Spain's most important ever partner. The switch to rivalry in recent years, and Spain's failure to support Germany while it struggled with the financial implications of reunification, has meant that Madrid's erstwhile allies in Berlin are distant at this hour of crisis.

Spain braces itself for a crisis made in Germany

2010-11-30T08:33:58+00:00

In the past, Germany has been both a model and a partner for Spain. But there have been deep-seated changes in how Berlin views southern Europe, and seen from Spain, it is as if Germany has decided southern Europe is a burden that prevents it from going global and needs to be dumped.

A pocket superpower

2010-11-11T09:26:44+00:00

At first glance the recent Franco-British treaty on defence looks like a model of pragmatism, tinged by a British desire to keep greater pan-EU defence cooperation at bay. But like so many European agreements over the last decades, this aspiration to preserve sovereignty may not prevent the treaty contributing to exactly that higher level of cooperation.

Dear (new) Foreign Minister

2010-10-25T08:57:33+00:00

Spain has a new minister of foreign affairs - Trinidad Jimenez. So what are the priorities? Firstly, to restore international confidence in Spain, but then to think of the long term challenges in a world that is changing quickly.

A reed in the wind

2010-10-21T07:57:44+00:00

Europe's pathetic reaction to Liu Xiaobo's Nobel peace prize showed an urge by EU leaders to not only render themselves internationally irrelevant, but also a determination to cover the EU itself in ridicule. Europe must decide whether it wants to play a role in the new world order, or bend like reeds in whichever direction the wind is blowing.

Afghanistan three wars

2010-09-29T08:49:45+00:00

Waging even one war and winning it is complicated enough. Not to mention waging three different wars and winning them. This is what faces the international forces in Afghanistan. (In English and Spanish)

Strategic weaknesses

2010-09-22T13:18:07+00:00

The EU is finally looking for coherent ways to organise itself as a powerful actor on the world stage. This is necessary in a multi-polar world of rising powers - but Europe needs to remember that dealing with its challenges at home is a prerequisite for being taken seriously abroad.

Embryo states

2010-07-20T10:26:12+00:00

Everyone's talking about the BRICs. But we shouldn't forget about the territories trying to become states. Kosovo, Palestine, Taiwan and East Timor: they're all looking for our attention, and in some cases make better 'states' that the recognised ones.

PIGS can fly

2010-07-13T08:37:43+00:00

Spain's footballing triumph at the World Cup came as a welcome distraction for the Spanish people. Their economy is a shambles; their politicians are struggling to do their jobs; and the Spanish presidency of the EU badly damaged their international reputation. But at least Spain's football team offer lessons as well as hope.

The BRIC bloc

2010-07-07T07:57:16+00:00

The Political West (the US, Europe and Japan) are in the doldrums while the BRICs keep growing. A third of world economic growth in the last decade has taken place in BRIC countries. So far, so good for the BRICs. But what next?

Torreblanca on Presidencies

2010-06-29T09:01:30+00:00

Spain's EU presidency fell far short of expectations, but it was handed a presidency without precedent. One thing is certain: a foreign relations system based on holding summits without content has no future at all.

Torreblanca on EU-Cuba

2010-06-23T08:14:48+00:00

The common position on Cuba is so anomalous and exceptional that, rather than providing an example of European sponsorship of human rights, what it exemplifies are glaring contradictions in European policy.

glass half full

2010-06-11T12:46:40+00:00

The Western Balkans are taking steps towards reconciliation, but there is still a long way to go. At the current rate of progress the chances of these countries joining the EU by 2020, as some hope, are slim. Is the glass half full, half empty - or simply too big for Balkan leaders to fill?

Glass half full torreblanca

2010-06-11T07:02:25+00:00

Foreign policy needs a rethink above and beyond Europe

2010-06-09T08:26:43+00:00

At the end of June Spain reaches the end of its rotating presidency of the EU. Spain's economic woes and the implementation of the Lisbon Treaty have made it a difficult presidency to handle. But there's more at stake: the decreasing influence of the EU on the international stage puts Spain in a difficult position. Should it move away from Europe, and if yes, how?

Torreblanca on Russia

2010-06-01T07:57:54+00:00

The EU-Russia summit in Rostov is an opportunity for the new EU to show it can act effectively on the international stage. But only if it first tries to understand what Russia's motives are and where it can help.

Nacho on Budget

2010-05-25T10:13:14+00:00

Spain seriously needs to review its priorities in public expenditure, and its attitudes toward education. Otherwise it will go on being that country which a former German foreign minister called "a beautiful country, full of four lane divided highways with no cars on them."

Torreblanca on Summits

2010-05-18T08:56:07+00:00

The present type of EU summit with international actors ought to change, otherwise we will be perpetuating a type of encounter that is closer to circus than to diplomacy, and where it is hard to tell who are the lions and who are the tamers.

Torreblanca on Europe Future

2010-05-11T09:06:14+00:00

Of all the problems facing Europe, one seems very difficult to solve: demographic forecasts, added to political ones, point to a Europe without Europeans.

JITGruyere

2010-05-04T13:14:29+00:00

Nuclear crises require a lot of unlikely events to occur at once, like all the holes in slices of Gruy?re cheese lining up. But as the nuclear ambitions of the Iranian president remind us, that is not a reason to ignore the perils of atomic weapons.

Torreblanca on Europe in crisis

2010-04-28T08:21:01+00:00

Volcanoes, Greek tragedy and government collapses. Divine intervention? Not entirely - greed and stupidity play a big part.

Torreblanca on EU summits

2010-04-20T07:52:15+00:00

Summit after summit. Is the Spanish Presidency of the European Union running out of legs?