Chaillot Papers

Regional cooperation in the Western Balkans is an issue that has been much discussed. The countries of the region are today much more closely connected through various cooperation schemes than they were seven years ago. This is a success that should not be underestimated. Today the Western Balkans is an emerging region in transition, where economic development is underway and in which cooperation is increasingly seen as an obvious choice, rather than a last-resort option.

In 2000 the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1325, Women, Peace and Security, which calls for ‘gender mainstreaming’. International organisations, governments and national militaries have become increasingly aware of the unintended gendered side-effects of peacekeeping operations, including incidents of prostitution, trafficking in women and the exploitation of local women and men in post-conflict societies.

L’Afrique est tentée par l’expérience européenne : les chantiers institutionnels et politiques que viennent d’ouvrir les dirigeants africains témoignent de leur volonté de prendre en mains leur propre développement en s’inspirant du modèle européen.

The civil war in Iraq, the nuclear issue in Iran, the war in Lebanon, the resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Israeli-Palestinian deadlock, the energy, Darfur, the disintegration of Somalia, tensions between Georgia and Russia: all these events have increased instability in the EU’s neighborhood in 2006, both to the east and to the south.