The eighth World Policy Conference, or WPC as we call it, opens exactly one week after the so-called “Islamic State” committed the terrorist attacks in Paris. The civilised world, in all its forms that have come down through history, with all its diversity and richness, weeps over and is outraged by this barbarism. Indignation can bring out the best in human aspirations, but it is not enough. Neither terrorism nor any of the contemporary world’s other ills will be defeated by expressing emotions alone. Only a genuinely international policy in the highest sense of the term will allow the world to make it through the 21^st century without repeating tragedies on the scale of those that wracked the 20^th.

This report explores the debate on how COP21 could shape expectations of a global shift towards decarbonisation and thus boost low carbon investments.

Business in Russia today is closely intertwined with the political sphere. But the forms of business’s involvement in politics have differed radically at different stages in history. Initially, business played an active role, displacing the government from its position due to its vigorous expansion. Subsequently, the state began to regroup, reinforcing its positions not just in politics but in the market too. Despite increased economic uncertainty and enormous changes in Russia’s foreign policy positions, the government currently remains the central actor in both Russian politics and the economy.

As China’s rise continues to shape and shake the course of international affairs, and Europe enters a new chapter in its collective history, Europe-China relations are becoming more relevant, but also much more complex.

On November 4th 2015, the Ifri Center for Energy held an international conference on the future of Climate Action beyond the COP21. The conference brought together key experts to outline reasonable expectations for the Paris Climate Summit, in terms of binding commitments from the parties and, more broadly, in terms of the profound transformation that an agreement could trigger.

Julien Nocetti outlines the new geopolitical challenges posed by the current stand-off between Russia and the West over Ukraine, which have added to the general defensive leitmotiv in the Russian domestic internet governance with a tighter grip on online communications and transactions, which often contradicts the announced goals of economic stimulation in the information and communications technologies (ICTs) area as one of the vehicles of non-commodity based growth.

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is currently at a key moment in its political history. Careful observation of the changes in the Congolese political landscape is necessary to grasp the nuances, challenges and opportunities, with regard to a peaceful political changeover which is a condition for lasting peace.

For the past two years, the United States has been at grips with an increasingly revisionist Russia in continental Europe. The crisis in Ukraine deteriorated the state of the bilateral relationship with Moscow [1] to what could be an all-time low since the end of the Cold War [2].