On June 22, Greece reached an agreement with its eurozone partners to formally exit from the latest of a series of bailout programs that have provided an economic lifeline to Athens throughout its debt crisis, but at the cost of eight years of brutal austerity. To celebrate the deal, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras finally donned a tie, something he had pledged in 2015 not to do unless Greece was granted debt relief. In an email interview, Angelos Chryssogelos—a teaching fellow in politics at the Department of European and International Studies, King’s College London, and associate fellow of the Europe [...]
BRATISLAVA—Slovakia, a NATO member that has called itself part of the “core of the European Union,” may talk positively about its Western orientation, but its actions recently suggest an increasingly closer alignment to Russia and its interests in Europe. Many observers point to the junior partner in its coalition government, the Slovak National Party, or SNS, as the reason why. The party’s nationalist, euroskeptic leader, Andrej Danko, the speaker of the Slovak parliament, has visited Moscow twice in the past eight months. Earlier this month, Slovakia’s Defense Ministry, which is headed by a member of the SNS, postponed a long-awaited [...]
What many have long viewed as one of the most ridiculous disputes in international politics may finally come to an end, thanks to an agreement reached last week. Following months of quiet negotiations with neighboring Greece, Macedonia announced it will change its name. If all goes to plan, by the end of the year, the country will cease to be the Republic of Macedonia or the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, as it is officially known at the United Nations. Instead, it will become the Republic of North Macedonia. The name issue emerged with the collapse of Yugoslavia in the [...]
