3391 publications
The European Gas Market Looking for its Golden Age?
The EU gas policy has to deal with a new landscape on the supply and demand sides. This study examines five major recent evolutions of the EU gas market: the relations with Russia, LNG coming back to Europe, the decrease of Groningen production, the contrasted evolutions of shale gas and the perspectives of EU natural gas demand.
Eurasia in Russian Foreign Policy: Interests, Opportunities and Constraints
The Eurasian axis of Russian foreign policy has been given several impetuses over the last two years. The most important of these has been the sharp deterioration in relations with the West against the backdrop of the Ukraine crisis.
The German Debate on Country’s Security: Different Discourse, Same Paradigm
Recent debates in Germany about the future of the country’s security and foreign policy have aroused interest abroad, especially in France.
From Financial Diplomacy to Geopolitics of Finance
The financial system has become too complex to be controlled at state level.
De-radicalization and the Prevention of Radicalization in Germany, Great Britain and Denmark
To date, a few thousand Europeans have left Europe to join jihadi fighters in Syria and Iraq. Several hundreds of them have already returned. To deal with this phenomenon, some countries have developed radicalization prevention and de-radicalization programs.
War’s Indirection or the Return of the Limited War
Over the last few years both the United States and Russia seem to have changed their conception of how to deploy force.
Assessing the Achievements of International Criminal Justice / A New Era of Oil Abundance?
Born from the ashes of two world wars, the concept of international criminal justice took nearly half a century to become anchored in institutions and legal concepts that are independent of specific conflicts. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, that for Rwanda, and the creation of the International Criminal Court, among others, bear witness to the real progress made during the 1990s. This issue of Politique étrangère offers a series of articles that shed light on these achievements and their limits.
International Criminal Justice at 70: Between the Iron and Golden Ages
The modern principle of international criminal justice goes back to Nuremberg and its highly specific historical context. The 1990s marks a decade of renaissance, for former Yugoslavia and Rwanda in particular.
The ICTY Story: A Clear Failure?
Established to hold trials for crimes committed during the Yugoslav wars in the 1990s, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has vacillated between its punitive purpose and writing the history of this period.
Rwanda: How to Judge Genocide?
The extraordinary nature of the 1994 massacres in Rwanda gave rise to the need for “complete justice”, operating judicial processes on several levels.
The Right to Compensation at the ICC: Promises and Uncertainties
The establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has made it possible for the victim to be fully recognized in international trials, with the assertion of the right to compensation for acts of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.
A New Era of Oil Abundance?
From 2014 to 2015, the price of oil fell.
American Presidential Elections: What the Primaries are Telling us
The presidential primaries have begun, and have quickly become a target for much criticism.
Ethiopia, an African Power?
For a long time, Ethiopia was the only African country to escape colonization, but over recent decades the country has suffered a string of economic crises, a violent revolution, and Eritrea’s secession. The current government launched a massive development plan which is starting to show sign of improvement.
The Atlantic Partnership’s Trial of Multipolarity: End of Illusions
European solidarity seems to be breaking down just as Europe is becoming a lesser factor in American strategy and alongside the proliferation of divergent poles affirming the differences of interests on the international scene.
China and the UN’s Peace Keeping Operations: Defending Sovereignty
China has become one of the main personnel contributors for UN peace keeping operations, and the principal contributor among the permanent members of the Security Council.
Sweden's Nato Workaround: Swedish security and defense policy against the backdrop of Russian revisionism
Russia’s revisionist foreign policy and military build-up has considerable security implications for the Baltic Sea region, including for Sweden.
Greek-German Relations in Times of Crisis
This essay focuses on Greek-German relations with emphasis on the period of the SY.RIZ.A-Independent Greeks governments in 2015. In particular, it attempts to outline the political dimension of negotiations between Athens and Berlin at the EU level and explore mistakes and opportunities in the bilateral relationship.
Refugees and European borders in the aftermath of Paris’ terror attacks
Just a day after the murderous attacks that killed 129 people and wounded about 350 more in Paris and St Denis on November 13th 2015, the word spread that a Syrian passport had been found near the body of one of the Stade de France’s attacker.
Indian Policies in the Phosphate and Fertiliser Sectors: International and domestic aspects
India is now a major player in the international fertiliser market, regardless of the nutrients considered. Whether it is a question of imports, domestic production, or consumption, India ranks among the top three global players in the sector.
The German OSCE Chairmanship in 2016: Towards a renewed dialogue with Russia?
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) represents the perfect framework for discussion of pan-European security issues thanks to its unique composition - fifty-seven member states of the Euro-Atlantic sphere, including the United States and Russia. The OSCE remains indeed one of the few forums of institutionalized dialogue between Western countries and Moscow and the only one to also include Washington.
Opening speech of the 8th edition of the World Policy Conference, Montreux, Switzerland
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 21st century without repeating tragedies on the scale of those that wracked the 20th.
Shaping Expectations to Foster the Low Carbon Transition: Can COP21 be a catalyst for action?
This report explores the debate on how COP21 could shape expectations of a global shift towards decarbonisation and thus boost low carbon investments.
Russia: Business and State
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.
Climate Action beyond COP21 - Conference Brief
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.
Mapping Europe-China Relations: A Bottom-Up Approach. A Report of the European Think-tank Network on China ETNC, October 2015
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.
Russia's 'dictatorship-of-the-law' approach to internet policy
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.
DRC : Fluid Mechanisms. Political Reorganization Just Before the 2016 Elections
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.
Can Washington move beyond "Ukraine fatigue"?
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].
Islam, Judaism and National German Identity: Challenges and New Prospects
The present analysis links the debate on German national identity to on the one hand the revival of Judaism which was a deliberate political choice and on the other to the expansion of Islam which conversely was not anticipated. The article explains how Judaism was able to revive in Germany after 1945 and how Islam has become the third largest religion in the country in number of believers.
Cross-Domain Coercion: The Current Russian Art of Strategy
This paper traces the evolution of Russian views on the art of coercion, and on the role of nuclear weapons in it, from the post-Cold War “regional nuclear deterrence” thinking to the current “Gerasimov Doctrine”.
German Migration Policy: Unfinished Business
Although Germany is currently one of the main immigration countries, the Federal Republic has been slow to develop a long-term migration policy that comprehensively meets the diverse challenges that the country faces. Germany remains focused on short-term actions and is reacting to changes rather than actively anticipating them.
There Will Be Gas: Gazprom’s Transport Strategy in Europe
The key role of Ukraine in the transportation of Russian gas and the underground gas storage facilities are a legacy of the Soviet era. From the mid-1990s onwards, Gazprom has repeatedly tried to control gas transit through Ukraine and other infrastructures from the Soviet era without success.
Securing Energy and Mineral Resources for China: Debating the role of markets
This paper examines how China seeks to secure access to an ever growing level of natural resources from overseas. In its quest for resources necessary to fuel its economy, does China seek to bolster the development of international markets, or rather to procure resources in a more mercantilist fashion?
Le piège de la guerre hybride
Since its inception in the mid-2000s, hybrid warfare has become a fashionable concept among Western strategic community. However, it lacks a clear definition and, if loosely used, could lead to possibly dangerous misunderstandings.
U.S. Engagement Towards Central Asia: No Great Game After All?
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, Washington has defined general foreign policy objectives towards the Republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
Are private companies agents in the implementation of French immigration policies?
Migration policies and rules applying to the recruitment of foreign workers impact HR and recruitment processes of French private companies. Administrative procedures are both complex and time consuming for they might require extra actions from those employees in charge of the recruitment process. The difficult access to clear information coupled with the impossibility to anticipate the outcome of recruitment procedures hinders economic objectives of firms and impacts their competitiveness.
Burundi: Unravelling the Peace
Since achieving independence in 1962, Burundi has experienced several episodes of civil war, the last of which came to end when the Arusha Accord was signed in 2000. The gradual return to peace in the wake of the Arusha Accord has been jeopardised by Pierre Nkurunziza’s announcement on 25th April 2015 that he would stand as a candidate for the presidency.
EU Reform: Mapping out a state of flux
“EU Reform” is widely discussed across Europe but rarely defined. This report analyses how the 28 member states of the European Union understand “EU reform” and provides an insight into how their views might play out in debates on the future of the EU as well as on day-to-day politics.
Defending Europe? A stocktaking of French and German Visions for European Defense
The aim of this study consists of taking stock of strategic thinking in France and Germany. More concretely, it intends to identify compatible and incompatible aspects, as well as the potential for compromise, in these national considerations on the future of CSDP and NATO. In so doing, it concentrates on five issues: strategic visions, threat perception and military doctrine; the institutional framework for European defense; military interventions; capabilities as well as the industrial dimension.