International Relations

With an unleashed US president seemingly determined to destroy tried and trusted transatlantic ties along with the multilateral order that the United States created together with its Western European allies after WWII, the European Union finds itself more and more on its own. The EU has to (re)define what role it wants to play in a global context and in its neighbourhood. In light of the loss of important military and soft power through Brexit and the ongoing internal crisis characterised by Euroscepticism and right-wing populism, this prospect is uninviting, but urgency and necessity are obvious.  In this web dossier, we will focus on three topics: the Western Balkans enlargement strategy; the conflicts in the Middle East (Jerusalem, Syria), the refugee crisis and the transatlantic tug-of-war. ​

The disappointment of Europeans grows with the tone and manner of Trump’s behaviour, his disregard for European arguments against trade restrictions as well as the fact that he broke an international agreement and threatens European businesses with secondary sanctions. But how can a divided Europe keep up with the US?

Jerusalem has seemingly forever been at the epicentre of conflicts in the Middle-East. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has proven no different. Sovereignty over Jerusalem remains deeply contested between Israelis and Palestinians with both sides laying claim to the Haram al-Sharif / Temple Mount. 

In order to commemorate 100 years anniversary since the declaration of independence of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, the South Caucasus Regional Office of the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung asked political scientists and historians to write analytical articles that would on the one hand, reflect on the main foreign and internal priorities of the first republics and on the other hand, analyze what was the impact of the short-lived experiences of statehood on the democratic political culture of the South Caucasus. The authors have analyzed the issue of legacy of the independent republics (1918-20/21): How and from which perspective are the Azerbaijani, Armenian and Georgian republics discussed in current context? Are current political parties considered as inheritors of the political parties that existed during 1918-21 and even before? How is this legacy reflected?

In the twilight years of the 19th century, the Georgian people were faced with a number of challenges. Although the abolition of feudalism had liberated the peasantry, they had not been given land and their afflicted state remained the same.

The name Visegrad in Western European terminology has become synonymous with a lack of solidarity and nationalist politics. In Hungary, however, it also has implications for the future of democracy in Western Europe. How can the EU recover its appeal?

The conflict in Syria, considered to be the worst humanitarian crisis the world has faced since World War II, continues to have devastating effects on its people and an increasingly destabilising impact on the wider region. The EU can make a difference in conflict solving.

The UK is witnessing a drastic leadership vacuum - just when the opposite is needed most. Tory and Labour party are divided but there is hope given the multiple new civil organisations pop up on the Remain side. 

The foreign policy of the new Orbán government is rather 'obstructionist' than constructive. Orbán aims to create a sphere of influence on the Western Balkans and together with Poland form an Eastern block against the central European power. He is also inclined to make frequent use of it's veto right towards the EU.

Undoubtedly the emergence of the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan (ADR) was the by-product of a broad range of processes and dynamics in and around of the Caucasus, the developments in the Tsarist Russia as well as in the neighbouring countries of the Russian Caucasus, the Ottoman Empire and Persia. The elites of the ADR, both of Muslim and of non-Muslim faith were socialized in the late Romanov period. Azərbaycan dilində