The United States has developed a vast body of legal regulations with extraterritorial application in order to tackle corruption on the international stage and to pursue companies that do not abide by the trade embargoes demanded by U.S. foreign policy.

The signing in January 2009 of the gas supply and transit contracts between Gazprom and Naftogaz marked a turning point in Russian-Ukrainian gas relations: yearly intergovernmental, last minute and non-transparent winter deals were replaced by a predictable, long term commercial relationship. 

Almost 20 years after Vladimir Putin's accession to the presidency in 2000, how should the Russian political system be defined?

With globalization weakening their borders and their sovereignty, are states now marginalized on the global stage?

The Arab Spring has shaken dysfunctional states that were built upon the recurrent use of violence.

The Egyptian presidential election of spring 2018 will, in all likelihood, result in Abdel Fattah El-Sisi maintaining power, given the tight control over the opposition.

Shortly after his inauguration in May 2017, the President of South Korea, Moon Jae-In, announced a major policy shift away from nuclear and coal power, and toward renewables and gas. This would have meant a complete U-turn from previous policies, considering that nuclear and coal produced 40% and 30% respectively of Korea’s total electricity in 2016.

In a matter of months, Luanda politics became unrecognizable. The reasons why, and the ways in which, João Lourenço, President of Angola since september 2017, proceeded to these substantial and unexpected changes will be analyzed in detail in the pages that follow. 

The paper examines the reasons for the poor state of relations between Russia and the United Kingdom, providing a brief historical and political account of why relations have deteriorated. The various options facing the UK after Brexit, and within this framework the ambiguity of current British foreign policy and diplomacy, are outlined.

With the launch of its “battery alliance”, the European Union is finally taking up the industrial battle with Asia and hopes to meet a large share of the surging demand for electrical batteries. Yet, the clock is ticking and the future of battery manufacturing in Europe depends primarily on the strategies that automakers will adopt.

India has committed to ambitious action on climate change, but financing its renewable energy goals remains a significant challenge.

In September 2015, Addis Ababa introduced the first Light Rail Transit system (LRT) in sub-Saharan Africa. This tram, a symbol of Ethiopian renewal, was nevertheless barely used by the capital’s residents during the first few months. However, at the time of our research trip in April 2017, access to the tram during rush hour was difficult and the trams were overcrowded.

Transatlantic differences over the future of the Iran nuclear deal – or the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) of July 2015 – are damaging a nuclear accord that all parties, except the United States, see as delivering on its purpose. They also increase the risk of Washington and European capitals working at cross-purposes vis-à-vis Iran and broader regional policies. To avoid such a scenario, the E3 (France, Germany, United Kingdom)/European Union (EU) and the United States need to set up new channels of communication to avoid a transatlantic rift, to attempt – if at all possible – to preserve the Iran deal, and to secure its benefits for regional and global security.

The use of recreational cannabis became legal in the States of Colorado and Washington in January and July 2014 respectively. The regulations, based on the examples of the tobacco and alcohol markets, intend to tackle the black market and to protect minors more efficiently. How do these two pioneering experiments inform the ongoing debate in France?

The acceleration of the digitization of energy infrastructure has brought many economic benefits, including  greater efficiency in the rationalization of energy consumption. However, this has also increased the risk of cyberattacks, where malicious software is able to take advantage of the increasing digitization of energy equipment. 

Assessing the state of democracy in Asia is a challenge. While some countries, such as Japan and India, have been showing the way from early days, some others, such as in Southeast Asia are still struggling to ensure stable and sustainable democratic institutions and practices.

Attitudes vis-à-vis Russia expressed in the public sphere are heterogeneous, in France more so than in Germany. In both France and Germany, the general public is by and large skeptical of Vladimir Putin and his policies. The picture is more diverse in the political realm. In Germany, there (still) is an approach that might be qualified as “mainstream”. The French debate, in turn, is highly fragmented.

The European Union (EU) is facing what the European Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker, calls a ‘polycrisis’. The EU is under increasing pressure to deliver and address citizens’ concerns.

Papua New Guinea (PNG) is one of the most resource-rich countries in the world, but successive governments have failed to put the country on a stable development track.

Following difficult years for the European gas industry, natural gas is back to the front stage.

President Trump’s administration is characterized by its systematic denial and repealing of measures from his predecessor, be it in foreign policy or domestic policy. This is particularly the case for the energy and environmental policies. There is however a continuity from one administration to another: the steady rise of US hydrocarbon production and the development of the US as a global leader in oil and gas production and in the near future, their exports to global markets.

The geopolitical analyses of energy markets are traditionally focused on fossil fuels, and less on renewable energy sources.  

The global environment for trade is undergoing significant changes. New emerging players such as China are aiming to adapt the rules and institutions inherited from the postwar Bretton Woods system.

This article focuses on a little-explored aspect of Russia’s intervention in Syria: the new and diverse expeditionary forces engaged on the Syrian frontlines alongside Russian regular armed forces.

For about 20 years, security sector reform (SSR) has emerged as an essential tool for crisis recovery and reconstructing weak and failed states at the heart of the security-development continuum. It is time to take stock of the lessons learnt about SSR and to offer an analysis of good practices and the lessons learned from these experiences. 

The ability to penetrate remote and contested theaters of operation is a crucial asset for any expeditionary military power.

The President, Jacob Zuma, replaced his respected Minister of Finance, Pravin Gordhan, on the 30th March 2017. It was the second attempt in two years (this time successful) to put an official in this key position who is "acquiescent" to the president's projects.

Chinese investments in Europe have surged in recent years, becoming both a source of hope and growing concern across the continent.

Germany has a long tradition of climate policy programmes with ambitious greenhouse gas emission reduction targets and comprehensive climate and energy policy packages.

This target-driven policy approach is, however, increasingly facing challenges due to the lack of progress on greenhouse gas emission reductions in key sectors, i.e. the power, the transport and the building sector. 

How can France and Germany contribute to reaching the goal of European strategic autonomy? This key question has been guiding the work with the present report. In the light of a more demanding security environment, but also a rare momentum for further European integration, Berlin and Paris have to take their security and defense cooperation to the next level, bilaterally as well as in the EU.

In January 2017, U.S. intelligence agencies confirmed that Russia had indeed attempted to interfere with the 2016 U.S. election campaign. This effort took two forms: on the one hand, beginning in the Summer of 2016, the hacking and publication of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails, in order to hurt the Democratic candidacy; and on the other hand, an aggressive communication campaign aimed at disrupting the electoral process in favor of Donald Trump.

The election of Donald Trump is a symptom of a general crisis in international liberal order.

Between 15-21 November 2017, a day short of one week, Africa’s second longest-serving leader, President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe was forced out of office through a spectacular coup d’État. The collapse of Mugabe is hardly surprising, with the country having experienced close to two decades of democratic backsliding.

As the 19^th National Congress is now over, questions about foreign policy implications of China’s leadership reshuffle are raised.

Alice Ekman deciphers the 19^th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in foreign policy terms.

India’s digital economy is characterized by “last mile” data protection, with privacy norms, data collection and sharing standards being set at the level of the application (“app”), operating system (OS) and the device. This practice lends itself to multiple, often crisscrossing rules maintained by smartphone manufacturers, mobile operating system vendors and application developers. The user is caught in a maze of privacy policies that bear on important questions: what data is collected, where it is stored, who it is shared with, and legal recourse in the face of policy violations or unauthorized use of data by third parties.

Donald Trump is disrupting the established world order. But, despite his provocative declarations, is he really looking to challenge it?

Since Xi Jinping became president of China, the number of think tanks has considerably increased.

Going beyond the numerous claims of rupture, is Trump overturning the international order and the place occupied in it by the United States?

Since Kim Jong-Un came to power, the North Korean regime has significantly strengthened its nuclear and ballistic capabilities.

The exploration of space and the use of digital tools and systems have in common to be quite recent in human history but to have changed the world, society and economy by connecting people and things, breaking down borders, and redistributing knowledge, power and control.