The conflict in and about Ukraine has catapulted the European Union's Eastern Partnership (EaP) into the limelight of international attention. Belittled as a bureaucratic and technical policy instrument, the European Neighbourhood Policy and the EaP as its Eastern regional dimension have within the course of a few months gained unexpected geopolitical significance. 

In Israel, both the regional geopolitical context and domestic politics play an important role in the development of the offshore gas fields.

The focus on the power confrontation between China and the U.S. has for a while been directed towards the South China Sea, but a focus should be given to the Arctic region, where the second act is already ongoing.

The financial system has become too complex to be controlled at state level. 

Julien Nocetti outlines the new geopolitical challenges posed by the current stand-off between Russia and the West over Ukraine, which have added to the general defensive leitmotiv in the Russian domestic internet governance with a tighter grip on online communications and transactions, which often contradicts the announced goals of economic stimulation in the information and communications technologies (ICTs) area as one of the vehicles of non-commodity based growth.

Written by Ifri's research team and its network of associates, the new RAMSES 2016 analyses geopolitics on a worldwide scale. The major theme of this 34th edition is Climate: A new chance? In addition, RAMSES 2016 tackles the insertion of Africa in globalization and the uncertainties of democracy today in post-industrial societies, but also in the South.

For the new geopolitical reality called “Chinafrica”, the future may not be destined to be as radiant as the official win-win rhetoric would have us believe. Although the beginning of the century was notable for the exponential development of Sino-African trade (which grew from $10 billion in 2000 to $210 billion in 2013), a series of emerging problems seem to be signalling that the Sino-African honeymoon is over and that we are back with the harsh realities of the globalised economy.

Editor: Deborah Sherwood, published by Cligendael International Energy Program (CIEP) and Institut français des relations internationales (Ifri)