The European leaders are gathering this week to agree on a new settlement for the United Kingdom. The sudden peak of political interest, however, is coming late in the negotiations. The UK question has always been a European question despite the lackluster interest from European capitals. A failure to properly address the consequences of Britain remaining or leaving the EU would be very detrimental for the future of the Union.

Japan’s public diplomacy (PD) profile rests almost exclusively on the promotion of its cultural soft power. Today, in the complex geopolitical setting of Asia, in which national rivalries are reviving competing wartime history narratives and territorial disputes, this approach is no longer sufficient to advance Japan’s own national interests and gain favorable opinion abroad. Under the Prime Minister Abe, Japan has begun to transform and upgrade its public diplomacy. However, the country is still facing a number of challenges.

Born into the Cold War, the very notion of ‘reassurance’ was revived in the wake of the 2014 Ukraine crisis as NATO had to label the measures destined to reassert the lasting relevance of collective defense towards its member states. 

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. 

After the world entered the nuclear age, civilian and military organizations have witnessed the slow emergence of nuclear cultures, defined as the set of values and knowledge, shared among the national security community, about the relative importance of nuclear weapons in the country’s defense posture, the distinctive features of nuclear weapons in terms of security, safety and operational requirements, and the workings of deterrence. 

Despite a landmark agreement on climate in December 2015, reducing the share of coal in the world energy mix will remain extremely difficult. This paper analyses five large consumers choices in terms of coal and clean coal technologies.

A new stage in the development of Russia's migration policy is upon us. Since 2010, legal amendments and the Concept of Migration Policy of the Russian Federation to 2025, adopted in June 2012, marked a clear change in how migration flows are regulated, the aim being now to maximise the economic benefit of labour migration.