19 posts
The Lapland experience
Finnish foreign minister Alexander Stubb has drawn up quite a useful metaphor for Catherine Ashton in her job as EU foreign policy chief. She is akin to a football club manager. She has to deal with 27 foreign policy egos or players – “27 Ronaldo...
A European own goal
Expectations were high when the Lisbon Treaty entered into force and Catherine Ashton was appointed head of EU foreign policy. One of the first questions asked at the press conference when Ashton was appointed, was whom the world should call on matte...
Don’t waste the golden chance of the EU’s diplomatic service
Setting up the European Union’s new diplomatic service was never going to be easy. Turf wars between the EU’s 27 member-states and the European Commission were inevitable, and the ever meddlesome European Parliament was certainly not go...
Rethinking International Relations: Meet A Guerrilla Diplomat
Daryl Copeland has served in the Canadian Diplomatic service for almost three decades and has traveled on six continents as a backpacker. He sees the traditional diplomacy institutions as not being able to cope with the complexities of a global world...
New EU Foreign Secretary Champions Diplomatic Corps for Europe
The relatively unknown Brit, former EU Trade Commissioner and UK minister, Baroness Catherine Ashton was selected last month to be the European Union’s first official High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. The move came...
Foreign policy test
Catherine Ashton, the EU's new foreign policy chief, today set out her ambitions. In a letter to The Times she said that her job was to "make our voice stronger" on the world stage. She also extolled the virtues of...
EU leaders approve outlines of diplomatic service
Task of drafting detailed proposals will be left to the EU's new foreign policy chief. The leaders of the EU's 27 member states have endorsed the outlines of the European External Action Service (EEAS), the new diplomatic corps that is to assist the...
Repairing the bridge
The diplomatic benefits of an undiplomatic outburst. When Recep Tayyip Erdogan stormed out of a panel discussion with Israel’s President Shimon Peres in Davos last January, denouncing Israel’s offensive in Gaza and quoting the sixth comma...
А. SEIFERT: "Diplomats Should Check Up Their Compasses"
A famous German researcher, an expert in Central Asia Doctor Arne Seifert commented on current issues of Central Asian region. READ MORE...
