One year on from the death of Jina Mahsa Amini at the hands of Iran’s morality police, which sparked unprecedented protests across the country in support of women’s rights, Dr. Azadeh Zamirirad calls for European decision-makers to take a feminist approach to their foreign policy with Iran and in their response to Iran’s feminist uprising.
Alexandra Filippenko explores the reasons why Russian civil society institutions failed to prevent the war in Ukraine and suggests a number of measures that Western democracies may take together with Russian opposition leaders to end the war and establish a lasting peace.
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.
The danger inherent in the basic structure of the Russia-West crisis itself ought to be receiving more attention, argue Malcolm Rifkind and Ian Kearns. The ELN Board members write that the lack of asymmetry of interests with Russia will make it harder to navigate a safe outcome of the war.
Putin underestimated Western unity and the scope of Western reactions to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, write Üzümcü, Ceylan and İldem. However, they note that had such an invasion occurred during Donald Trump’s presidency, the Western reaction may have been quite different.
It is simply unrealistic of Biden’s critics to think the US can obtain a “better deal” in which Iran makes sweeping concessions without gaining anything in return. But if the JCPOA is restored, new channels will open for multilateral diplomacy with Iran, write Esfandyar Batmanghelidj and Sahil Shah