DOWNLOAD The Rethinking Stability initiative was a partnership between Interpeace, the Atlantic Council, and the Bundesakademie für Sicherheitspolitik (BAKS). The initiative was made possible thanks to the generous contributions of the German Federal Foreign Office. In the last twenty years, stabilization has become perhaps the main approach through which international actors have engaged in conflict
On July 17, Russia withdrew from the UN-brokered Black Sea Grain Initiative, striking a devastating blow to Ukraine’s economy and undermining global food security. Yet the grain shutoff is just one symptom of a much broader strategic problem. The bigger issue is that Moscow is well on its way to turning the Black Sea, which
For the past nine years, Russian aggression against Ukraine has been driven by Moscow’s desire to derail Ukraine’s progress toward a European future. Russia’s 2014 invasion came in direct response to Ukraine’s Euromaidan Revolution, which was sparked when the country’s pro-Kremlin president Viktor Yanukovych sought to back out of earlier EU integration commitments. Today’s full-scale
At the risk of making too obvious of a point, 2019 is not 2023. In 2019, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen entered office promising a “geopolitical Commission.” Since then, the European Union (EU) has faced one geopolitical crisis after another—a pandemic, a war in Europe, and intensifying energy and trade insecurities—and has embraced
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has led to dramatic changes in the European energy market, with countries across the continent moving to end years of growing reliance on Russian gas. However, more can still be done to safeguard European energy independence and prevent the further weaponization of Russian exports. In the search for greater energy
When Moldova acceded to the EU Energy Community Treaty in 2010, it pledged to restructure away from Soviet centralization and reform its natural gas sector to comply with the EU’s anti-trust laws. More than 13 years later, the path ahead toward unbundling remains long and winding. The issue is urgent, however, because without gas sector
A few years ago, against the backdrop of a national pro-democracy uprising in Belarus, I called on European leaders to develop a clear strategy for Eastern Europe. This envisaged EU and NATO membership for Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, and a free Belarus. Alas, many European politicians preferred to wait and see. It is admittedly difficult to
The head of Ukraine’s Supreme Court, Vsevolod Kniaziev, was detained in mid-May on corruption charges based on an alleged $2.7 million bribe. The charges were brought by Ukraine’s leading anti-corruption bodies, the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) and National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU). This landmark case reflects the considerable progress made in Ukraine’s struggle
The European Commission’s Spring economic forecast for Ukraine, which was published last week, offered a more upbeat assessment of the country’s prospects than might have been expected given the devastating impact of Russia’s full-scale invasion. Despite contracting by nearly 30% in 2022, the Ukrainian economy has, according to the Commission, “demonstrated remarkable resilience” under unprecedented
On her first foreign trip since winning reelection in March, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas paid a highly symbolic visit to Ukraine. While in the country, the Estonian leader declared: “For peace in Europe, we need Ukraine in the EU and NATO.” The people of Ukraine would certainly seem to agree. After over a year
