Category: Current

The new EU member states of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) have been massive beneficiaries of financial arrangements since their accession to the European Union (EU). Net official inflows amount up to two or three per cent of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) – comparable in relative size to those

For a centre-right party, for any political party really, to win a democratic election by a two-thirds majority is rare enough (as in 2010). To repeat the experience is unprecedented. One can well imagine the Fidesz-haters – and their number is legion – muttering into their bowls of gruel about

For a centre-right party, for any political party really, to win a democratic election by a two-thirds majority is rare enough (as in 2010). To repeat the experience is unprecedented. One can well imagine the Fidesz-haters – and their number is legion – muttering into their bowls of gruel about

Until the end of the Cold War it was largely taken for granted that an effective foreign policy depended crucially on the possession of military power. While diplomacy and other forms of what has become known as “soft power” had a role, it was generally assumed that in the absence

Both Ukraine and Russia share the heritage of communism, which is the destruction of individual moral judgement. This may seem like a very mundane and obvious observation, even a rather irrelevant one, but this fact is the key to understanding what has happened in Ukraine and the Russian reaction to

When Vladimir Putin returned to Russia’s Presidency in May 2012, the Kremlin began to intensify its pressure on the former Soviet republics to participate in its integrationist projects. Ukraine became the keyprize in Kremlin plans to recombine the former Soviet republics in a Moscow-centred dominion styled as the “Eurasia Union”.

CENTRAL EUROPE:COOPERATION IN A COLD CLIMATE* Important though the Crimean and Ukraine crises are in themselves, they are perhaps more significant as an alarm bell for the NATO alliance and for US strategy in Europe. It is hard to conceive of a geopolitical event that would more profoundly affect the

It is hard to find one single word to describe all that happened in the eastern part of Europe twenty-five years ago when the communist regimes collapsed. Economists and political scientists tend to use the term reform for the profound changes of that time. But this term lacks clear contours.

Among the many unfair or exaggerated criticisms Hungary has received recently it is often brought up that Horthy, Hungary’s Head of State (Regent) from 1920 to 1944, was an ally of Nazi Germany, who, with Hitler’s help, annexed territories from the neighbours, and permitted the murder of half a million

The first thing a Foreign Ministry does when a speaking invitation arrives is to use the most sophisticated electronic techniques to check the “About Us” page of the website of those sending it. The website of the Danube Institute tells me this: the Institute provides an independent centre of intellectual