Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. won the Philippines’ presidential election by a land­slide on 9 May and was officially sworn in on 30 June. During the election cam­paign, Marcos Jr. - the son of Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. who was ousted in 1986 - remained extremely vague when...

In the Black Sea, Turkey has been able to engage in resource exploration and joint security arrangements with its neighbours. Ankara's approach to the Black Sea demonstrates that with the right diplomatic efforts and mutual recognition of inter­ests, regional cooperation is possible even in...

Moscow’s decision on 24 February 2022 to invade Ukraine constituted a culmination in the militarisation trajectory of Russian foreign policy since 2008. At the same time, the war has exposed the weaknesses of the military reform launched by Moscow in 2008. The high losses of the country’s...

Even though the six Western Balkan countries (WB6) have close political ties with the EU, their alignment with the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) has in­creasingly come into focus since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. The EU should take a...

Far-right parties are gaining support across Europe. Their level of participation in national governments is increasing, and they are expected to make further gains in the European Parliament elections in June 2024. As their influence over European Union (EU) policy rises, it is imperative to...

Germany is being met with rejection from the governments of Arab states when it calls for human rights to be respected. If those being addressed do not outright refuse to engage in dialogue, they usually rely on four patterns of argumentation to ward off corresponding demands: (1) the human...

Direct negotiations on a ceasefire in Russia's war against Ukraine broke down within just a few months. Today, Moscow and Kyiv are pursuing diplomatic initiatives in order to shape the international context of the war in their favour. Russia’s war diplomacy aims to weaken the "collective West"...