Lead Authors: Marie-Claire Aoun and Quentin Boulanger (IFRI); Authoring Team: Damir Pešut, Marko Matosović and Robert Bošnjak (EIHP); Paul Deane, James Glynn and Brian Ó Gallachóir (UCC); Reviewer: Nathalie Desbrosses (Enerdata)

Displaced peoples, insecurity over food and sanitation, economic devastation, worsening community tensions: the Central African Republic is going through what must be the worst crisis in its history.

In 2013, Barak Obama and John Kerry managed, not without difficulty, to steer Israeli and Palestinian leaders back to peace negotiations. At the same time, Washington re-established dialogue with Tehran in talks aimed at finding a solution to the Iranian nuclear problem.

The revolutionary forces that shook the Arab world in 2011 were fighting for more just societies. Justice, however, is difficult to bring about in post-dictatorship transitional phases.

Turkish leaders would like to turn their country into the leader of the Middle East. However, they are in competition with another of the region’s key players: Iran.

Many Israelis and Palestinians contest the ‘two-state solution’.

Russia, as the fourth largest greenhouse-gas emitter in the world, and a major supplier of fossil fuels causing these emissions, played a decisive role in the enforcement of the Kyoto Protocol, the main instrument of global climate policy so far. 

Recent events have provided the opportunity for the rekindling of relations between Ukraine and the European Union.