Southern and Southeastern Europe

The military implications of Catalonian secession—an update

By James Hasik

assuming that Catalonia was admitted to NATO, what would the newly independent country contribute? At the 2014 Strategic Foresight Forum at the Atlantic Council, Anne Marie Slaughter of the New America Foundation opined that an independent Catalonia would do a fine job of defending itself. After all, Catalonia is a country of over 7 million people, with more than $300 billion in GDP. Spending just 1.6% of that—well below the widely-ignored NATO threshold, of course—provides over $4.5 billion annually. y de-emphasizing the military forces that any landlocked country will have, and instead steering investments towards those it is comparatively positioned to provide, Catalonia could punch above its weight in European political affairs.

Future Tense: What Next for Catalonia?

Catalonia’s controversial independence referendum has left Spain with many unanswered questions and an unclear path forward, according to Carles Castello-Catchot, chief of staff in the Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security. On October 1, the regional government of Catalonia in northern Spain went ahead with a referendum that Spain’s constitutional court had deemed […]

Ellinas in Cyprus Mail: Significant Role for Gas in Rapidly Changing Energy Mix

By Charles Ellinas

Read the full article here.

Castello Joins Bloomberg’s El Financiero to Discuss the Secession Vote and Police Intervention in Catalunya

By Charles Castello-Catchot

Watch the full discussion here.

Castello joins TV3 to Discuss the American Position Toward Conflict in Catalonia

By Charles Castello-Catchot

Watch the full discussion here.

TRADE IN ACTION September 21, 2017

By Global Business & Economics Program

THIS WEEK IN TRADEToday, September 21, the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the EU and Canada provisionally enters into force. It has been eight years since the start of negotiations and all chapters, except for the Investment Court System, are entering into force. What next? CETA needs to pass 42 national and regional […]

What’s next for the Greek Economy? A Conversation with Minister Pappas

By Global Business & Economics Program

On September 15, the Atlantic Council’s EuroGrowth Initiative hosted a private roundtable discussion with H.E. Nikos Pappas, Greek Minister of Digital Policy, Telecommunications and Media and Chief Strategist to Prime Minsiter Alexis Tsipras.

The Euro’s Difficult Future

By Luigi Bonatti

In The Euro’s Difficult Future – Competitiveness Imbalances and the Eurozone’s North-South Divide author Luigi Bonatti, a professor of economics at the University of Trento in Italy, stresses that the existing North-South competitiveness divide creates growing tensions between member countries and fuels hostility towards European Union institutions. The paper illustrates why this competitiveness divide is […]

An EU navy is impossible; Fortunately, it’s not necessary.

By James Hasik

To rebuild robust naval forces, Europeans should think less like Americans, and more like Russians. As I noted yesterday, Brexit has opened all sorts of talk about the future of British and European military activities. To continue the argument today, let’s tack towards naval matters. In “All the Queen’s Ships” (Proceedings of the US Naval Institute, January […]