The ‘Steinmeier Formula'

Author(s):  
Judas Everett

The conflict in Eastern Ukraine has been ongoing for over five years, despite the best attempts of the international community to help resolve it. Rather than the EU, UN, or NATO, it is in fact the Normandy Format talks or the Normandy contact group, which is composed of Germany, Russia, Ukraine, and France, which has taken the lead. This chapter considers historical evidence and problems before continuing to analyse the aims of the actors in the conflict, the Normandy Format talks, the ‘Steinmeier Formula', and whether this represents a solution that can satisfy all the actors. The importance of the wider reforms as part of strengthening Ukraine's ability to fulfil its aims and direct its own policy path is noted as essential, as is uncertainty from all actors over longer term prospects for the fulfilment of their aims once a peace agreement has been enacted.

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
Dr.Sc. Ramë Buja

A mature, wise, successful and concluding diplomatic action would be recorded if the international community would not have ignored the Yugoslav crisis in its beginning, and if it would conference less for the same matter without finding a solution, but it would hold a single international conference for the serious crisis in Yugoslavia, with serious partners and allies, lead by the USA.Why did this not happen, at least in Dayton, when such a crisis had already passed four years since its inception? The answer is rather flagellant for the international community, because unfortunately, in relevant circles of political and diplomatic force, the determination and courage for a consolidated and decisive action for a solution was not created yet.In this conference, a third one in the series (after the ones in the Hague and London) addressing the crisis in former Yugoslavia, determination, courage and bravehood was only on the side of one single international factor, the USA. It had all that, after all failing efforts of the EU in resolving this piece of the crisis, which was now being dealt with by the USA and the Dayton Conference, without having the potential or the pretence to put a halt to the wholesome crisis which had already metastasized throughout the former SFRY area.The Dayton Conference had delegated the Kosovo problem to the Contact Group, together with other matters disputable with the political order in the former Yugoslavia, until a final settlement of peace. For a long time, it was said that the Kosovo issue would have to be tackled by a future diplomatic cycle.The Dayton Peace was considered to be the concluding act of the former Yugoslav dissolution and reconstruction crisis. Disputable matters, left to the competency of the Contact Group, were more related to crisis management, preservation of provisional balances, ensuring mediation and presence of international institutions for the purpose of monitoring. The Contact Group had no power to reach decisions on political and geo-political matters. It would only operate within the framework of the Dayton Peace.[1]The Dayton Conference ruined all hopes of Albanians that something could be done to solve the Kosovo issue, with the same way Kosovo continued to trace, peaceful, subordinating and humiliating. It was ultimately recognized that other paths should be pursued to achieve the everlasting goal of freedom and independence.If what happened, or better said, if what was necessarily to happen for the future of Kosovo, the Liberation War, lead and commanded by the Kosovo Liberation Army, did not happen, Kosovo, Serbia and Montenegro, the whole region, would still be living in the suffocating stink of blood and gunpowder, in the nightmare of war and genocide, which was rising to an unprecedented tragedy. The Liberation War of Kosovo, with its extent, sobered and cleared, provoked and appealed to the international community to act, as it acted, breaking the taboos established by rules of a past time, and by setting a more solid and serious cornerstone of consolidation of a new political and diplomatic system, which would be more active and more fruitful. With a view of creating a different world, a world of emancipation, hope, courage and progress, this war (KLA war, author note) ultimately detached the international community from the illusion that it had been saved from the Balkan with the Dayton Agreement. The Contact Group – was the most concrete body which could be imagined under a shadow “international community” – was in favour of a compromise, a type of a conflict regulation, which was rightfully unfavoured in the Balkan. (the Contact Group, a group of “great powers” – United States, Russia, Germany, Great Britain and France – was created in 1994, with a view of revitalizing the former International Conference on the Former Yugoslavia ( ICFY ).[2]The EU was rather complex and deeply divided in terms of the Yugoslav crisis. The three most powerful countries, Germany, France and Great Britain, had very different political approaches to the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia. By such approaches, each of the states persisted to use the crisis in ensuring their individual positions inside the EU, starting from political influences and up to the future concepts of European security.[3]Setting from these discrepancies and detractions of policies and interests of greater powers of Europe, and the impossibility of approximating and unifying these extremes, to make Europe a Union in its essence and full meaning of the word, the actions of the USA in resolving the crisis are comprehensible and justifiable. Being the leader and decisive in partial attacks of the Northern Atlantic Alliance, to come to a peace conference by coercion, similar to the Dayton, it was not possible to tackle the whole Yugoslav crisis at one go, in a single conference. In fact, a prior well-studied concept had been missing, because knowing the circumstances and other factors, there would be no one to deal with the matter in terms of coming to a solution. This had another reason, the scepticism of the US in being able to cope with such a large chaos, in terms of tackling the whole Yugoslav problem, which had grown for almost a full century.[1] ALBANIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE (Centre of Albanian Encyclopedia): Kosovo in an encyclopedic view, Toena, Tirana, 1999, pg. 139.[2] Reymond DETREZ: KOSOVO. DE UITGESTELDE OORLOG, translated from Dutch by: Mirela Shuteriqi, Tirana, 2004, pg. 143.[3] Visnja STARESINA: VJEZBE U LABORATORIJU BALLKAN, Neklada Ljevak d.o.o., Zagreb, 2004, pg.49.


2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-28
Author(s):  
Krisztián Manzinger

Abstract The Macedonian name dispute, a political debate between Greece and the current Republic of North Macedonia, arose after the break-up of the multi-ethnic Yugoslavia. The issue was overpoliticized for the societies of both countries. The international community followed the dispute, yet it did not exercise any pressure on Greece to cede in a debate seen by many as the stronger bullying the weaker. A breakthrough became achievable when political forces interested in the resolution came into power in both countries in the mid-2010s. The Prespa Agreement, signed in 2018, offered a mutually acceptable resolution and opened the way for North Macedonia to enter the NATO and to the opening of accession talks with the EU in March 2020.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-147
Author(s):  
Song Lilei ◽  
Bian Sai

International public health cooperation has always been one of the typical issues of bilateral and multilateral diplomatic ties in the international community. As two important actors in the international community, China and the EU have worked on many transnational public health cooperation projects. The two-level division of the EU's foreign policy competence decided the Cooperation and Challenges on Public Health between China-EU. Cooperation with the EU member states is expanding, the cooperation with the level of the EU started to show up. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, both China and the EU have publicly expressed their support for WHO's anti-pandemic measures. China has actively provided public health aid to Central and Eastern European countries and shared the Anti-COVID-19 experience. In this article, the author reviewed the progress and mechanism of China-EU public health cooperation, discussed how China and the EU have jointly dealt with the pandemic by sharing experience, providing aids, strengthening multilateralism and international cooperation, and building a community with a healthy future for humankind since the outbreak of COVID-19. Facing the COVID-19,China-EU health cooperation should be further strengthened to show the importance of a community with a shared future for humanity.


2019 ◽  
pp. 327-332
Author(s):  
Khatuna Chapichadze

There has been established and promoted the strong belief in the Georgian public, however also in the international community, that despite significant human, territorial and state loss, as well as psychological damage and failure Georgia experienced as a consequence of the 2008 conflict with Russia, the smaller country gained victory over the bigger one in terms of the information war. There is attempt in the paper to find out if the above-mentioned view has been argumented sufficiently, taking into consideration two major factors: 1. The EU-backed “Report of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Conflict in Georgia,” known informally as the “Tagliavini Report”, blaming Georgian former government of Mikheil Saakashvili „to fire the first shot” in the subsequent confrontation; 2. The smaller nation-state syndrome as of the victim in the conflictual interaction with the bigger one, playing important role not only in the Russian-Georgian, but also Georgian-Abkhazian and Georgian-Ossetian relations.


Author(s):  
Ešref Kenan Rašidagić

Since Bosnia and Herzegovina’s declaration of independence in 1995, its path has been a rocky one. Unwillingness by the international community to stand by the central government and stand in the way of the neighboring states of Serbia and Croatia’s territorial pretensions, produced a succession of ceasefire agreements, culminating in the final, Dayton Peace Agreement. Each of these agreements espoused the ethnic principle as the guiding philosophy for the organization of the state. The post-war period demonstrates that despite the passage of time, the principle of organization of multi-ethnic state along ethnic lines presents a stumbling block to the functioning of the political, economic and social life in the country. The political history of post-independence Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) therefore reads as a history of protracted political paralysis, with no hope of rectifying the problems without another forceful intervention of the international community.


2005 ◽  
pp. 125-156
Author(s):  
Milijan Popovic

The Republic of Srpska was created during the civil war in the territory of the former Yugoslav republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992-1995. Within the general framework of the agreement to establich peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina (the Dayton Peace Agreement), in Novembar 1995 it was recognized as an entity within Bosnia and Herzegovina. According to the Dayton Constitution, by its legal nature The Republic of Srpska was a confederative unit (with some elements of a federal unit) within Bosnia and Herzegovina as a confederation (with the some elements of a federation). During the last ten years, both Bosnia and Herzegovina and The Republic of Srpska underwent deep transformations. An indication of these deep transformations was the decision of the president of the Arbitration Tribunal to establish the District of Brcko as the third entity sui generis (in addition to The Republic of Srpska and The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina). Two basic levers in the anti-Dayton transformational processes which occurred in Bosnia and Herzegovina and its entities were The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as The High Representative of the international community for Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina passed a series of anti-Dayton decisions; by its consequences the most far-reaching decision was related to the issue U 50/2000 which declared the constitutionality of the Bosniacs, the Croats and the Serbs in the entities. On the basis of that decision, in 2000 a set of amendments to The Constitution of The Republic of Srpska was passed which deeply changed the legal nature of The Republic of Srpska. It was transformed from a confederative into to a federal unit. The anti-Dayton activity of The High Representative of the international community is even more pronounced. He became the main constitutional and legislative factor of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its entities. Under his pressure, in 2003 new amendments to The Constitution of The Republic of Srpska were passed which further diminished the authorities in The Republic of Srpska, specially in the field of national defence and public security. The High Representative himself brought and declared dozens of laws for Bosnia and Herzegovina with which he transformed Bosnia and Herzegovina from the union of states into a federation. With the police reform he announced, he is preparing to regionalize Bosnia and Herzegovina, not taking into account the entity borders, and thus to pave the way for the final abolition of entities including The Republic of Srpska.


Significance The SEC in January ordered Rappler to shut down for breaking foreign ownership laws, which Rappler denies. Critics suggest the move was a politically motivated attempt by President Rodrigo Duterte’s government to clamp down on news outlets critical of the government, which Duterte and his administration deny. Impacts The international community, for instance the EU, could decide to halt or cancel trade preferences. Improved Philippine internal security could enhance journalists’ safety, but money shortages will bedevil this effort. Any self-censorship by journalists could undermine public trust in the media and scrutiny of the government. Large Philippine television networks use PDRs and could be at risk if Rappler loses its court appeal.


Significance The accord, the full contents of which are still not public, differs from previous deals in that it follows the first direct talks between the parties and because the government has reportedly met two key demands of armed groups: amnesty and power-sharing. These are controversial measures, but they may give the deal a greater chance of success than earlier efforts. Impacts If implemented, the peace agreement could facilitate humanitarian relief efforts and lead to gradual economic recovery. The new government should secure additional financial and technical assistance for the transition from the EU, UN and individual states. The actions of the African Union and neighbouring states, particularly Sudan and Chad, will carry more weight than Western partners.


2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 294-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcin Wojciech Solarz ◽  
Małgorzata Wojtaszczyk ◽  
Maciej Zych ◽  
Anna M. Solarz

Every year, Gallup Inc. surveys the societal relationships that EU countries have with the USA, Germany, Russia and the PRC as well as the EU itself. The respondents furnish information on Europeans’ views regarding designated international political entities as international community leaders. This article examines the attitude of the European Union’s citizens to the above indicated potential and real leaderships in 2014–2016.


Author(s):  
Ayokunu Adedokun

With the heavy involvement of the United Nations (UN) and the international community, the Rome General Peace Agreement of 1992 ended more than 16 years of civil war in Mozambique. The peace agreement and post-conflict initiatives by the international community was successful in transforming the Mozambique National Resistance
(Renamo) from a rebel group into a viable political party. Key components of the United Nations and the broader international community success in negotiating peace and creating conditions for political stability and democracy in Mozambique were (a) the provision of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) before democratisation, (b) decentralization of humanitarian and relief efforts to provincial and district levels, (c) provision of financial support directly for the development of political parties, and (d) budget support to sectors relevant to peacebuilding. Though imperfect, Mozambique remains an important case study in how the UN and international community can help in post-conflict environments. Thus, the paper argues that success in peacebuilding operations depends on credible and impartial international support through the UN, as opposed to peacebuilding operations through the United States of America or Russia.


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