Europe Center Commentary & Analysis

Hollande Finds Confidence, Vision, and Voice—Now It’s the French People’s Turn

By Nicholas Dungan

Earlier today, President François Hollande provided what many had been waiting for since his inauguration a year ago: a confident vision of the future and a clear idea of France’s place in it. It would be easy, but erroneous, to underestimate how big a difference this change of discourse can make.

Lessons (Not) Learned from the Caucasus

By Sabine Freizer

The situation in Turkey today could be much less polarized, without such strong anger and distrust of the police, if a key lesson learned in the South Caucasus had been applied in Taksim Square: governments should engage non-violent protestors and allow demonstrations to fizzle out gradually.The indiscriminate and violent police reaction in Turkey did the […]

Transcript: 2013 Freedom Awards

The 2013 Atlantic Council Freedom Awards honored former Polish Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki, the European Humanities University of Belarus, Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan, and former US Ambassador to Hungary Mark Palmer.

Europe’s September Phoenix

By Fran Burwell and Nicholas Dungan

As European leaders return to work after their summer holidays, they will find many of the same problems they left behind: the sovereign debt crisis, a vulnerable banking system and an unreconciled division over austerity vs growth. Amid the doom and gloom, however, it is worth pausing to celebrate how far Europe has come. 

Britain Adrift

By Fran Burwell

The country most at risk in the eurozone economic crisis is not Spain, Italy, or even Greece, but Britain. While attention has focused on countries that seem perpetually on the brink of sovereign default or banking collapses, the British government has embarked on a path that could lead it out of Europe, with profound consequences […]

Presuming President Hollande

By Nicholas Dungan

If François Hollande, the Socialist Party challenger to Nicolas Sarkozy, is elected president of France on May 6, he will face an immediate sizing-up of his leadership at the G8 and NATO summits on the morrow of his taking office on May 17.  He should be expected to arrive at those summit meetings as a […]

Obama Must Reset Relations with Russia Along Economic Lines

By Fran Burwell and Svante Cornell

As Vladimir Putin prepares for his May inauguration and return to the Russian presidency, the United States must design a new relationship with this often difficult leader and his country. The “Russian Reset” of President Obama’s first term sought to overcome the strain in relations of recent years in order to achieve some specific foreign […]

How the French Might Split their Vote

By Nicholas Dungan

The French people go to the polls to choose their next president in a first-round election on April 22, with a second round between the two top contenders on May 6.