Latest posts
Evangelos Venetis: The Future of Syria’s Civil War: Could a Buffer Zone Work Out?
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Following recent military developments in Syria, it is quite clear that, after more than a year and a half, the Syrian opposition has been successful in making clear to the Assad regime and the rest of the world its resolve to continue its armed stru...
Thedore Tsakiris: A Tale of Two Pipelines – The Selection of West Nabucco Opens the Way for the Final Curtain on the Southern Gas Corridor “Opera”
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When in 2003 the planners of the Nabucco pipeline named their 31 bcm/y project after the famous Verdi opera, they might not have been able to imagine that almost ten years latter they would still be “singing” in the Southern Gas Corridor “opere...
George Tzogopoulos: Facilitating open dialogue
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Checking my emails at the beginning of June 2012 I found one sent by Süddeuropa Gesellschaft. It was an invitation to participate in a forum with German and Greek journalists and introduce a panel on the role of the media during the current economic...
Evangelos Venetis: Mursi in Power: Democratic elections in Egypt and the rivalry between Islam and the Military
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Mursi is the first ever democratically elected president in the modern history of Egypt and this is a major development in the efforts of democratic powers of the country to sideline the power of the military in regard to the latter’s firm control...
Pantelis Touloumakos: Skeletons in the closet – The Armenian Genocide issue and Turkish foreign policy
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In December 2011, the attempt of the French government to pass a bill making it a punishable crime to deny the Armenian genocide, led the Turkish government to recall its Ambassador from Paris, and caused a serious crisis in Turkish – French diplom...
Pavlos Efthymiou: The Household Victory – The Meaning and Significance of the Greek Elections*
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The Greek vote had a class dimension: the haves voted to keep what they have and the have-nots voted for change and a chance to have or have again. This makes it very clear that if current trends persist, the ‘have nots’ will win with a solid maj...
Evangelos Venetis: Syria in Crisis and Diplomacy in decline
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On May 29 2012, the decision of the US, France, Britain, Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain, Australia and Bulgaria to expel Syrian top diplomats from their capital cities caught Assad by surprise. This move was led by Washington and took place in the aft...
Evangelos Venetis: Syria in Crisis and Diplomacy in decline
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On May 29 2012, the decision of the US, France, Britain, Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain, Australia and Bulgaria to expel Syrian top diplomats from their capital cities caught Assad by surprise. This move was led by Washington and took place in the aft...
Nikitas Konstantinidis: Greece – The Erosion of National Democratic Politics?
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The results of the May 6 parliamentary elections have heralded the end of an era in its post-dictatorial democratic politics (metapolitefsi) characterized by alternation in power by two catch-all parties, cartelization of government, and heavy statis...
Pavlos Efthymiou:Towards a Sustainable Union: Renewing the Promise of Intra-EU Prosperity
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This article seeks to add to the growing voice calling for an urgent return to the EU’s core values: democracy, prosperity, progress (e.g. Gabriel, 2011; Mallias, 2012a,b). Intra-EU processes of negotiation today, especially in the sphere of the ec...
Evangelos Venetis: Tariq al-Hashemi and the Shiite-Sunni rivalry in Iraq
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A day after the US troops withdrawal from Iraq, on 18 December 2011, there was a warrant arrest issued by Iraq’s Judicial Council against Iraq’s Sunni Vice-President Tariq al-Hashemi, accusing him of orchestrating bomb attacks, allegedly one of t...
John Mylonakis: Trade in Services under the WTO auspices – an exhibition of many lost opportunities
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Services are the fastest growing component of global trade, covering sectors from architecture to accountancy and jobs from hotel manager to boiler-fitter. Since 1990, the share of Services in GDP has grown from 65 to 72% in developed countries and f...
Giorgos Konstantinidis: Turkey after Erdogan – What next?
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The Balkan economies and mainly the Greek economy are negatively influenced by the European debt crisis during the last years. The Turkish economy dominates in the Balkans and can be considered as an emerging one, belonging to the G-20 group (16th la...
Harry Syringas:The Energy Balance of Power in the South Mediterranean
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It all started with Cyprus announcing its’ intentions to start off shore drilling for natural gas. The drilling was about to take place on the island’s northern borders to Turkey, in an area which is in Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zo...
Evangelos Venetis:The Doha Agreement and the Palestinians – Is a Breakthrough in Sight?
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On February 22, the agreement between Hamas and Fatah to form an interim unity government which will lead the Palestinians to elections in the forthcoming months caught many by surprise. The Qatari mediation played a major role in an effort to return...
Pavlos Efthymiou and Hubertus Juergenliemk: How much more can the Greek nation take?*
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Mainstream International Relations (IR) thinking (see Realism, Liberalism) holds that the national interest drives states to act the way they do on the international stage. This post-hoc rationalising to explain policy outcomes works successfully eno...
Evangelos Venetis: Oil and Diplomacy – Reviewing Greek-Iranian Relations
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A few days ago the Iranian Foreign Ministry called the Ambassador of Greece in Tehran, along with five other counterparts of the EU countries, to notify him that Tehran intends to change its oil supply conditions to Athens. Two hours later the Irania...
Parallelisms: Sankara, the hero who defied his creditors
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Resounding from the anti-austerity protests in Greece, we can hear the echo of Sankara — Africa’s own Che Guevara; the hero who defied his creditors.
Apostolis Karabairis: The long awaited Bosnian census
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Following intense talks of late 2011, the leaders of the six biggest parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) finally agreed on the regulations according to which the country-wide census will be carried out. This agreement was part of an overall packa...
Pavlos Efthymiou: ‘Can One Save the Titanic? From the Memorandum, Back to Growth Again’ – Book Review*
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Nikos Christodoulakis, Professor of Economic Analysis at the Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB), reviews, in this second edition of “Can One Save the Titanic”, the preeminent debates surrounding the Eurozone crisis and particularl...
