After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, governments in the former Soviet Union were immediately forced to deal with difficult geopolitical realities. In this report for the ELN, YGLN member Daniel Shapiro uses quantitative and qualitative analysis to show there is increased heterogeneity in geopolitical positioning among post-Soviet states and offers key lessons from this for Western policymakers.
This report details the findings of a roundtable organised by the ELN’s Balkans parliamentary project, that discussed regional security challenges and cooperation in Southeast Europe. Held in Belgrade in May 2023, it constituted the first event held in the region by the project.
As the security situation in Kosovo deteriorates significantly, the ELN’s Senior Associate Fellow Nick Williams writes that although this latest violence is local in origin, it has deeper roots and much wider implications.
In September 2022 Russia was expelled from the European Convention on Human Rights due to its invasion of Ukraine. Since then, the remaining member states of the Council of Europe have placed a greater importance on stabilising and safeguarding the European Court of Human Rights system, which currently struggles to implement its judgments and ensure compliance. Nikita Gryazin and Julia Glukhikh explore how to best improve the efficacy of the court in the face of these issues.
This month, Chancellor Shultz wrote, “Germans are intent on becoming the guarantor of European security that our allies expect us to be, a bridge builder within the European Union and an advocate for multilateral solutions to global problems”. But to do so requires a “new strategic culture” in Germany’s security strategy – What shifts should we expect in the new Security Strategy and where do the main challenges lie?
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has created a new impetus for the European Union to further its territorial and institutional integration. Nicholas Lokker writes that creativity and compromise will be essential to capitalising on this opportunity to increase the EU’s geopolitical influence.