Europe Inside Out
A regular appraisal of the foreign-policy challenges facing the EU.
Latest opinion pieces
The president of the International Crisis Group explains the genesis of his effort to define the international's responsibility to protect.
Friday, 10 October 2008
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The Georgia crisis suggests the EU and NATO should ease the conditions of accession for Georgia.
Friday, 10 October 2008

The EU and NATO need to re-assess how to deal with Russian subversion of Western interests.
Thursday, 9 October 2008

It is the management of the financial system that deserves scorn for today's turmoil, not the financial system itself.
Thursday, 9 October 2008
The Lisbon treaty should be buried and new approaches, based on a popular consensus, should be explored.
Tuesday, 7 October 2008

British politicians must recognise that the EU matters to the UK's security and prosperity.
Thursday, 2 October 2008
Bosnia's first attempt at a Gay Pride festival brought the lurking intolerance in Sarajevo out violently onto its streets.
Wednesday, 1 October 2008
Democrats should leave John McCain's running mate to the tender mercies of bloggers.
Tuesday, 30 September 2008
Deregulation was the root cause of the financial crisis; more regulation is needed to uproot the causes.
Saturday, 27 September 2008

German Trojan horses are dangerously increasing the EU's dependence on Russian energy.
Thursday, 25 September 2008

The Lisbon treaty would not have given the EU the teeth to tackle either the Georgia crisis or the global financial turmoil.
Thursday, 25 September 2008
Containment is implausible; a Yalta-style conference would border on appeasement. A third, principled policy is needed.
Monday, 22 September 2008

The EU must strive to make European defence more than just an aspiration.
Thursday, 18 September 2008

EU trade deals are helping to make the world hungrier.
Thursday, 18 September 2008

Traditional coal-fired power stations deserve to be on the scrap-heap, not the drawing board.
Thursday, 18 September 2008

Offshore wind-generated energy is a clear winner compared to conventional power.
Thursday, 11 September 2008

The EU has a brief chance to shape US foreign policy towards Iran before the victor in the presidential elections takes up his mandate.
Thursday, 11 September 2008
After wielding the stick in Georgia, Russia may find Azerbaijan more willing to bite a dangling carrot – a long-term oil deal that would shut out the West.
Thursday, 4 September 2008
Editor's blog
Editorial
Thursday, 9 October 2008
Press reviews
Columns
A regular appraisal of the foreign-policy challenges facing the EU.
Ness U. Patria ponders southern habits of culture and politics.
Rein F. Deer explores the quirks of Europe's Nords.
The Economist's central and eastern European correspondent casts his eye towards and over the EU's newer borders.
Letters to the editor
Why the Nord Stream gas pipeline is offshore
Thursday, 9 October 2008
Biofuels can result in more emissions
Thursday, 9 October 2008
Moore's Law and car emissions
Thursday, 2 October 2008

The future status of Ukraine and the Crimean peninsula could soon prove another test for the West's relations with Russia.
Thursday, 4 September 2008

Behind Russia's aggressive posturing is an educated middle class that is worried about its future.
Thursday, 4 September 2008
No one wants a new Cold War, but it must be made clear to Russia that the foundations of lasting peace involves respect for its neighbours.
Monday, 1 September 2008

The convening of an emergency summit for next week (1 September) suggests that the EU is at last getting serious about Georgia and, by implication, about policy in the Caucasus. Does this debacle spell the end of the soft-language doctrine? Is the EU to become a real player in the region?
Thursday, 28 August 2008

The next big transatlantic skirmish for the European Commission seems likely to be with the giant internet search-engine Google, a prospect which will surely raise a smile at Microsoft headquarters in Seattle.
Thursday, 28 August 2008

The dog days of August have yet again brought a dog-fight. Czechoslovakia 1968, the Soviet Union 1991 and Georgia 2008: it is foolhardy to underestimate the capacity that Muscovite conservatives have for violence. So, as they watched history repeating itself as tragedy, it is little wonder that Poland signed a missile-defence deal with the US and Ukraine offered the West the use of its missile warning systems.
Thursday, 28 August 2008
Russia will secure victory in the ‘Olympics War' courtesy of Europe's typically weak response.
Thursday, 21 August 2008
Behind Russia's return to traditional imperialism is a glaring lack of self-confidence.
Thursday, 21 August 2008
Without concerted political will to act strategically and decisively, even the Lisbon treaty's institutional reforms will not give the EU the coherence to contain, let alone confront, a resurgent Russia.
Thursday, 21 August 2008
The Cold War provides an example of how we can address the deep insecurity highlighted by the conflict in Georgia.
Saturday, 16 August 2008