Borell’s journey to the Tsar’s court: Between passivity and foolishness
Josep Borell, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policies (HR), concluded his visit to Russia on 6th February 2021. During his visit, the HR met the Russian Foreign Affairs Minister, Sergej Lavrov, to discuss the future EU-Russia relationship. This opinion discusses the outcome of the visit and offers a perspective for the EU-Russia relationship in the near future.
Are we observing the end of state diplomacy?
Since the 1980s, new forms of alternative diplomacies are rising which are enacted not only by states but also by non-state actors as international organizations and companies or similar entities. This contributed to the increased complexity in the communications between international actors, impeding the states to ignore these new evolving features of global governance. Nevertheless, the pre-eminence of state diplomacy is still strong and they still maintain their central role in the international foreign policy setting.
The Spreading Tentacles of Chinese Economic Diplomacy: Ethnic Conflict in Indonesia and Pakistan
In 2014, China’s GDP based on purchasing power parity has overtaken that of the United States. Though the US is still regarded as the world’s major economy, trends are shifting away from the narrative of a post-Cold War hegemony of liberal democracies. In light of such circumstances, this analysis assesses how Chinese development finance and investment in the Global South is shaping both, current geopolitics and the internal structure of Pakistan and Indonesia.
