Europe Archive

While President Donald Trump was issuing bombastic threats toward North Korea and Venezuela earlier this month, U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis quietly met with his Dutch counterpart, Defense Minister Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, at the Pentagon on Aug. 15. They discussed the ongoing crises in North Korea and Venezuela and continued their talks on NATO defense spending. But, to the surprise of many, they also touched on a more esoteric topic: the idea of introducing a “military Schengen zone” on the European continent, freeing up the movement of troops and materiel between EU member states. Under current laws, the movement of […]

As North Korea continues to antagonize its neighbors and the United States with threats of nuclear warfare, many have looked to China to rein in its contentious ally. But Russia has also spent years cultivating close ties with Pyongyang, providing it with vital diplomatic protection at the United Nations Security Council, even if economic ties have lagged. In this email interview, Richard Weitz, director of the Center for Political-Military Analysis at the Hudson Institute, discusses what is driving the relationship between the two countries, how it has evolved, and how it impacts efforts to isolate the North Korean regime in […]

Earlier this summer, on July 1, Hong Kong commemorated 20 years since the transfer of its sovereignty from Britain to China. The anniversary reignited the debate over the constitutional principle of “one country, two systems,” which was agreed to by the British and Chinese governments as part of the handover and is meant to guarantee Hong Kong’s autonomy from Beijing until 2047. Most coverage last month understandably focused on Hong Kong and China, especially since pro-democracy campaigners in Hong Kong, galvanized by mass protests there three years ago, have continued to criticize China’s interference in the territory’s affairs. But while […]

Editor’s Note: This article is part of an ongoing WPR series on LGBT rights and discrimination in various countries around the world. While Moldova’s LGBT community enjoys some legal protection against discrimination, public perceptions remain negative, and domestic proponents of a pro-Russian agenda have launched a propaganda campaign that has left LGBT people more and more exposed. Their battle is increasingly focusing on restrictions on their use of media and information platforms to mobilize for their rights. In an email interview, Anastasia Danilova, executive director of the GENDERDOC-M Information Center, Moldova’s only LGBT rights organization, describes the increasingly hostile environment […]

The current tensions over Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs have become a U.S.-North Korea bilateral story, as the two countries’ leaders spar in public. In addition, coordinating with the South Korean government is tricky when the political philosophies in Washington and Seoul diverge. Comparing this current crisis to regional stresses in Europe over Russia and in the Arab world over Iran shows how the immediate neighbors of an adversarial state often have different interests than Washington. And even when threat perceptions converge, policy preferences may not. The current alignment of politics and policies in Washington and Seoul is not optimal […]

“There is a question mark over Poland’s European future today,” former Polish Prime Minister and current European Council President Donald Tusk said earlier this month in a remarkable statement for someone intimately connected with both Warsaw and Brussels. His comments came as Poland’s conservative government, which regards Tusk as its archenemy, showed little sign of backing off its populist drive to overhaul the country, despite international pressure and vocal domestic opposition. Last month, tens of thousands of Poles took to the streets to protest deeply controversial reforms to the judiciary that critics say would have handed power over the system […]

In this week’s Trend Lines podcast, WPR’s editor-in-chief, Judah Grunstein, and senior editor, Frederick Deknatel, discuss the rhetoric and reality of the crisis over North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs. For the Report, Thorgils Jonsson talks with Peter Dörrie about Iceland’s path back from economic disaster, and whether today’s economic boom is different than the last one. If you like what you hear on Trend Lines, as well as what you’ve seen on WPR, please think about supporting our work by subscribing. Listen: Download: MP3Subscribe: iTunes | RSS Relevant Articles on WPR: Iceland Is Booming Again. Has It Learned Anything […]

A data breach scandal involving the government’s failure to safeguard information from access by private contractors has ended the tenure of top ministers in Sweden’s government and threatened to bring down the ruling coalition. The scandal has also exposed the precariousness of the country’s newly fractured political system. In an email interview, Jonas Hinnfors, professor of political science at Sweden’s University of Gothenburg, explains the causes and implications of the scandal, and how a divided political system may or may not allow the ruling coalition to survive. WPR: What is the nature of the so-called data breach scandal, when did […]

It’s been quite the turnaround. Almost nine years after Iceland, a country with just over 300,000 inhabitants, became the poster child for the 2008 global financial crisis, many indicators show the economy is doing better than ever. After the 2008 crash, Icelanders engaged in extensive debates about what had precipitated the crisis and how best to prevent such devastation from occurring again. Many still fear another crisis is around the corner, wondering whether it’s “2007 all over again,” while others believe a “New Iceland” has freed itself from the conditions that led to the last crash. Listen to Thorgils Jonsson […]

Ever since Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and military intervention in eastern Ukraine, NATO’s Eastern European member states have expressed mounting concern over their own security. Moscow still holds substantial political capital in the region and, as evinced by upcoming war games that will bring some 100,000 Russian troops to their borders in September, is willing to use its military capabilities to ratchet up tensions. WPR has compiled 10 articles analyzing the politics of Eastern European security in the face of renewed Russian adventurism. Purchase this special report as a Kindle e-book. The Political Battlefield How to Deter Russia From […]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent trip to Europe brought him to Hungary at a time when the government there was being accused of deploying anti-Semitic imagery and rhetoric in a campaign against billionaire George Soros. During a meeting with Central European leaders, a hot mic picked up Netanyahu bashing the European Union’s policy with respect to Israel as “actually crazy.” In an email interview, Dr. Toby Greene, an Israeli Institute Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute for International Relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, explains why these mini-scandals were somewhat beside the point for a visit focused […]