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Geopolitics

  • Image featuring the title of the meeting
    12May 2022
    Geopolitics of African Oceans

    On 12 May, the EUISS and the Africa Working Party of the Council of the EU (COAFR) held their seventeenth meeting to discuss the new geopolitical frontlines in Africa.

  • Microphone - Photo by Matt Botsford on Unsplash
    12May 2022
    Twitter Space on geopolitical frontlines in Africa

    On 12 May 2022, the Institute held its first Twitter Space, discussing geopolitical frontlines in Africa, a topic covered in our African Spaces Chaillot Paper.

    Africa’s geopolitical dynamics are being shaped by global powers increasingly scrambling to project influence in the continent. Participants discussed key areas in which such competition takes place and explored the geographical and functional spaces that are transforming African geopolitics, from oceans and cities to the information space. 

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    10March 2022
    African spaces
    The new geopolitical frontlines
    Edited by
    With contributions from

    Global powers are increasingly scrambling to project influence in Africa. This Chaillot Paper asks the question: what are the emerging spaces where power competition is taking place in the African continent?

  • Backdrop image
    15December 2020
    Turkey in Africa

    On 15 December 2020, the EUISS and the European Council’s Working Party on Africa (COAFR) held their ninth meeting to discuss Turkey’s involvement in Africa. Members of the European Council’s Working Group on Enlargement and Countries Negotiating Accession to the EU (COELA) also participated in the discussion.

  • 15October 2020
    Russia in Africa

    The EUISS and the European Council’s Working Party on Africa (COAFR) held their eighth meeting and first virtual teleconference to discuss Russia in Africa. Members of the European Council’s Working Party on Eastern Europe and Central Asia (COEST) also participated to the discussion.

  • Download Brief
    06August 2020
    Stand by Me! The Sino-Russian Normative Partnership in Action
    By
    China’s and Russia’s shared antagonism against the West fuels cooperation at bilateral and multilateral levels. In its normative dimension, this cooperation is driven by the overarching aim of defining and re-interpreting existing international norms in a way that reflects the two countries’ shared principles, worldviews and threat perceptions. This Brief examines the intricacies of the Sino-Russian normative relationship and the key challenges it poses to the EU.
  • Download Brief
    07July 2020
    Under pressure: can Belarus resist Russian coercion?
    By
    This Brief analyses the current dynamics underpinning the Belarusian-Russian relationship and its possible future trajectory in the light of new factors which limit Belarus’s room for foreign policy manoeuvre. It highlights how, under increasing pressure from Russia and faced with domestic challenges, President Lukashenka may be hard-pressed to maintain the delicate balancing act that he has performed up to now to ensure his regime’s survival.
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    30June 2020
    African Strategies
    European and global approaches towards sub-Saharan Africa
    By

    This Chaillot Paper analyses the evolution of EU member states’ strategies towards sub-Saharan Africa, as well as those of global actors, against the backdrop of systemic changes, including the implications of the Covid-19 pandemic. It seeks to identify the points of convergence – and divergence – in member states’ strategies, and examines how a coherent, joint EU strategy can be achieved.

  • Download Brief
    30June 2020
    Deciphering China in the Middle East
    By
    Beijing’s new activism in the Middle East reflects the evolution of Chinese foreign policy thinking, in line with the country’s rise as an economic superpower. Economic goals rather than ideological considerations have become key criteria in China’s selection of partners in the region, especially those which can provide the energy resources necessary to fuel China’s continued dynamic growth. Although as yet China is not overtly seeking to displace the US as the dominant power in the region, its penetration of the Middle East inevitably has far-reaching foreign policy and security implications.
  • Download Brief
    27May 2020
    The Butterfly Effect: why does Eastern Europe matter to Japan?
    By
    In recent years Japan has sought to rekindle diplomatic, political and economic ties with Eastern Europe. This Brief examines how Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 may have motivated this charm offensive, prompted by Tokyo’s fears that such aggression could potentially be replicated in the Far East, as well as by concerns about transfers of military technology from Eastern Europe to China and the weakening of the global non-proliferation regime. It shows how Japan’s foreign policy goals in the eastern neighbourhood overlap with those of the EU, and highlights the potential for strengthening synergies between them.

Pages

  • Download document
    10March 2022
    African spaces
    The new geopolitical frontlines
    Edited by
    With contributions from

    Global powers are increasingly scrambling to project influence in Africa. This Chaillot Paper asks the question: what are the emerging spaces where power competition is taking place in the African continent?

  • Download Brief
    06August 2020
    Stand by Me! The Sino-Russian Normative Partnership in Action
    By
    China’s and Russia’s shared antagonism against the West fuels cooperation at bilateral and multilateral levels. In its normative dimension, this cooperation is driven by the overarching aim of defining and re-interpreting existing international norms in a way that reflects the two countries’ shared principles, worldviews and threat perceptions. This Brief examines the intricacies of the Sino-Russian normative relationship and the key challenges it poses to the EU.
  • Download Brief
    07July 2020
    Under pressure: can Belarus resist Russian coercion?
    By
    This Brief analyses the current dynamics underpinning the Belarusian-Russian relationship and its possible future trajectory in the light of new factors which limit Belarus’s room for foreign policy manoeuvre. It highlights how, under increasing pressure from Russia and faced with domestic challenges, President Lukashenka may be hard-pressed to maintain the delicate balancing act that he has performed up to now to ensure his regime’s survival.
  • Download document
    30June 2020
    African Strategies
    European and global approaches towards sub-Saharan Africa
    By

    This Chaillot Paper analyses the evolution of EU member states’ strategies towards sub-Saharan Africa, as well as those of global actors, against the backdrop of systemic changes, including the implications of the Covid-19 pandemic. It seeks to identify the points of convergence – and divergence – in member states’ strategies, and examines how a coherent, joint EU strategy can be achieved.

  • Download Brief
    30June 2020
    Deciphering China in the Middle East
    By
    Beijing’s new activism in the Middle East reflects the evolution of Chinese foreign policy thinking, in line with the country’s rise as an economic superpower. Economic goals rather than ideological considerations have become key criteria in China’s selection of partners in the region, especially those which can provide the energy resources necessary to fuel China’s continued dynamic growth. Although as yet China is not overtly seeking to displace the US as the dominant power in the region, its penetration of the Middle East inevitably has far-reaching foreign policy and security implications.
  • Download Brief
    27May 2020
    The Butterfly Effect: why does Eastern Europe matter to Japan?
    By
    In recent years Japan has sought to rekindle diplomatic, political and economic ties with Eastern Europe. This Brief examines how Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 may have motivated this charm offensive, prompted by Tokyo’s fears that such aggression could potentially be replicated in the Far East, as well as by concerns about transfers of military technology from Eastern Europe to China and the weakening of the global non-proliferation regime. It shows how Japan’s foreign policy goals in the eastern neighbourhood overlap with those of the EU, and highlights the potential for strengthening synergies between them.
  • Download Brief
    30April 2020
    Arctic stress test
    By
    In the three decades after the Cold War, the perception of ‘Arctic exceptionalism’, the sense that the Arctic region is immune from broader geopolitical tensions, prevailed. However, this notion is currently being challenged: climate change is accelerating the opening of new maritime trade routes and exploitation of natural resources in the region, while great power competition between the US, Russia and China in the Arctic is intensifying, changing regional power dynamics.
  • Download Brief
    31March 2020
    Russia's forays into sub-Saharan Africa
    By
    Russia is mounting a remarkable political comeback in sub-Saharan Africa through a ‘low costs, high returns and visibility’ approach. Can a coherent strategy be discerned behind this push? And how is sub-Saharan Africa reacting to Russia’s overtures and what does it mean for the EU?
  • Download Brief
    02July 2019
    Russia in the Western Balkans
    By
    Russia's grand aspirational objective is to bring back what is deemed in Moscow to be a more natural state of play for the Balkans: multipolarity. But what is the Russian modus operandi in the region? Is it confined only to coercion, as the headlines suggest, or is there a softer side to Russia’s power?
  • Image featuring the title of the meeting
    12May 2022
    Geopolitics of African Oceans

    On 12 May, the EUISS and the Africa Working Party of the Council of the EU (COAFR) held their seventeenth meeting to discuss the new geopolitical frontlines in Africa.

  • Microphone - Photo by Matt Botsford on Unsplash
    12May 2022
    Twitter Space on geopolitical frontlines in Africa

    On 12 May 2022, the Institute held its first Twitter Space, discussing geopolitical frontlines in Africa, a topic covered in our African Spaces Chaillot Paper.

    Africa’s geopolitical dynamics are being shaped by global powers increasingly scrambling to project influence in the continent. Participants discussed key areas in which such competition takes place and explored the geographical and functional spaces that are transforming African geopolitics, from oceans and cities to the information space. 

  • Backdrop image
    15December 2020
    Turkey in Africa

    On 15 December 2020, the EUISS and the European Council’s Working Party on Africa (COAFR) held their ninth meeting to discuss Turkey’s involvement in Africa. Members of the European Council’s Working Group on Enlargement and Countries Negotiating Accession to the EU (COELA) also participated in the discussion.

  • 15October 2020
    Russia in Africa

    The EUISS and the European Council’s Working Party on Africa (COAFR) held their eighth meeting and first virtual teleconference to discuss Russia in Africa. Members of the European Council’s Working Party on Eastern Europe and Central Asia (COEST) also participated to the discussion.