Social media can both play a role in the dispersion of power and is itself a consequence of that dispersion.
This will be the year of spatial politics, when EU-style regionalism is forced to compete with Eurasian spheres of interest and a range of other geospatial labels.
For over two decades, no one in the West felt the need for regulating Russia’s relations with NATO. The lesson of the Napoleonic wars about the need to integrate a former adversary—which was forgotten after WWI—has been forgotten again.
With tensions between the West and Russia running high over Ukraine, China and Japan still wrangling over the Diaoyu islands, and America and China fighting over the same old stuff, it’s easy to be cynical about APEC. But this year’s summit seemed to accomplish quite a lot.
Pax Sinica has come. Countries in China’s orbit will be given security guarantees and trade preferences as long as they remain allegiant. Thus, the pivot to Asia will only drive Russia to unnecessary dependence on China.
Countries in and outside of the EU should consider reforms as continuing regardless of any official ascension date.
Over the next few years, the European Union will have to revamp its neighborhood policies completely. The ambition is not only to prevent state failure, but to help build functional political systems that can strive economically, provide essential services, guard individual freedoms, and maintain social peace.
For Russia, the upcoming APEC Summit is seen primarily as an opportunity to attend important, bilateral meetings, not to talk about common issues in the Asia-Pacific.
Carnegie’s Rising Democracies Network met in Brazil to engage with local and regional actors and exchange ideas for cooperation toward international democracy and human rights support.
The Ukrainian crisis has shown to the South Caucasian states that deciding between European and Eurasian integration comes at a high price, but that indecisiveness is an even worse path.