SOTEU 2022: Expectations on the Roadmap to 2023

On the 14th of September, Ursula Von der Leyen spoke in front of the European Parliament to deliver 2022’s State of the Union speech. The President of the Commission was accompanied by the guest of honour for the evening, Mrs. Olona Zelenska. It has been 8 months since the beginning of the Ukrainian war, which has prompted an energy crisis, stark inflation and interruptions in supply-chains across Europe as a spillover effect, among other consequences.

(Analysis) Iraqi Kurdistan: the EU’s Next Major Energy Supplier?

Iraqi Kurdistan’s Prime Minister is convinced that his region can become one of Europe’s main energy suppliers in the near future.
This article takes an in depth look at the opportunities and challenges facing Iraqi Kurdistan’s plans of becoming a global energy exporter, in order to determine their feasability.

Polar Power Plays: Is the EU’s Arctic Policy Still Relevant?

The Arctic has been termed “the pole of peace” by Mikhael Gorbachev in 1987. However, in recent times, there are a lot of developments in the region. As such, this article takes a closer look at the EU’s Arctic policy in light of recent challenges and analyzes the main challenges to and priorities of the EU’s Arctic strategy.

(Analysis) EU Candidate Status for Ukraine and Moldova: Political Signal or Geostrategic Move?

The article seeks to outline the key factors that impacted the EU’s decision to grant candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova. It touches on the issues of EU-Russia competition in the shared neighborhood and relations between the EU and the Associated Trio countries.

(Analysis) A Grand Chess Game: The Russo-Ukraine Conflict’s Impact on China’s strategy toward the EU

The article speculates China’s grand strategy toward the EU within the context of the Russo-Ukraine conflict. It analyzes the US-EU-China trilateral relationships and how the U.S. and China utilize the Russo-Ukraine conflict to spread their influence in the Eurasian continent.

Weaponisnig Migration To Europe: Humanitarian Crisis or Hybrid Warfare ?

The threat of weaponized migration is sadly a reality that the European Union needs to face. This de-humanizing practice, which instrumentalizes humanitarian crisis and the struggle of innocent to gain strategic advantages, is a new way in which the conflict between Europe and Russia is being fought. As such, it is imperative to gain a comprehensive understanding of what the implications of such strategies are, and also to maintain fortitude in addressing them

EU Mutual Defense: Which Challenges Are Ahead?

The current security challenges that the European Union is facing in light of the war in Ukraine oblige it to rethink its definitions of security and defence. Often ignored in these debates is the fact that the EU has an own mutual defence tool at its disposal, similar to the one established through NATO.

Let’s Tune In: Europe’s Most Important Gas Pipeline Closes Again

After three days in which the North Stream pipeline was closed because it needed repairs, Gazprom announced the Nord Stream would have been closed due to the unexpected worst technical malfunctions. The decision has been taken by Gazprom and Russia’s industrial regulator Rostekhnadzor. It is not the first time that the pipeline was shut down because it has been closed for 10 days in July and after that intervention, its operativity has not gone beyond the 20% of its capacity.

EU Military Response: Uncharted Territory in the Union Foreign Policy

The European response to the war in Ukraine has not only shifted the paradigm of EU foreign response, but it has also created a series of unprecedented changes to the very function of the Union. As such, it becomes imperative to investigate the mechanisms and the implications of these new systems in order to assess what they could imply for the European Union’s future.