Although the Intra-Afghan peace talks are a significant step towards a resolution of a forty-year-long war, challenges remain as violence continues and both sides not only have drastically opposing views but also face internal divisions.

The European Council is favourable to introducing new own resources to finance the EU budget, but finding a feasible and palatable approach is not easy. In this article, economists Clemens Fuest and Jean Pisani-Ferry recommend putting the revenue from ETS allowances at the centre of the reform of the EU own resources system.

The coronavirus pandemic hit when the world was still reeling from the Great Recession, delivering a serious blow to economies everywhere. Will European welfare states be able to absorb this new shock? Anton Hemerijck and Robin Huguenot-Noel urge welfare states to consider long-term objectives for greater resilience to short-term crises.

Russian intervention is possible, but at this point very unlikely. Much depends on the next steps of the protesters, the Belarusian regime, and major Western states.

Why were the Dutch so reluctant to endorse a post-pandemic economic recovery package? Jean Monnet Fellow G. Matteo Vaccaro-Incisa takes a look at some of the underlying motivations driving Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s reticence.

Brought into high relief by the COVID-19 pandemic, unregulated commercial surrogacy generates risk and damage to families, children, and mothers. In this article, Law researcher Sylvie Armstrong argues that a self-sufficiency approach in Europe, where commercial surrogacy is widely banned, is the best strategy available for protecting the parties involved.

In the momentum of the Black Lives Matter protests, cities around the world have been challenged to remove commemorative statues recalling their colonial or slaveholding pasts. EUI history researcher Daphné Budasz examines these controversies through a reflection on commemoration, national identity and the social role of history.

Nearly 10 years ago, the UN first articulated a business responsibility to respect human rights in their supply chains. In this article, School of Transnational Governance Policy Leader Fellow Martin Curley argues that going forwards, civil society, especially trade unions, should play a much greater role in defining how this responsibility is fulfilled, especially at the international level.

What do voters want? Former EUI member Konstantin Vössing and his co-author Sebastian Jobelius take a look at the decline in support for social democratic parties around the world, and suggest a new values-based strategy in light of research on voter moblisation.

The French Senate recently walked back a state of emergency provision that shielded decision-makers from criminal responsibility related to their actions during the COVID-19 crisis. Law researcher Sophie Duroy analyses the provision, its rationale, and proposes an approach to high-risk decision-making that ensures legality while safeguarding effectiveness.