There is no justification for the atrocities committed by Russia against the people of Ukraine. This does not stop scholars from trying to explain Putin’s decision to invade. John Mearsheimer’s recent lecture at the EUI was one such attempt – which fails on multiple counts, the authors argue.

The EU’s Strategic Compass for Security and Defence was approved in the midst of Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine. In this assessment of the Compass, Visiting Fellow Michael Sanfey underlines the challenges of internal coordination and external cooperation, and regrets the lack of clarity on the EU’s peaceful raison d’être.

Sovereignty is one of the most important concepts in international relations, but its meaning is contested and not immutable. Against the backdrop of today’s military conflict in Ukraine, Robert Schuman Fellow Michael Sanfey explores the tensions between globalisation and sovereignty, and the UN’s ambiguous championing of the latter.

Despite the two rivals’ public commitment to cooperate on reducing carbon emissions, neither is in the position to act decisively or stay the course. In this post, Professor of Law and Governance Peter Drahos reviews the main political, economic and environmental constraints.

At a critical period in which Israel is cracking down on Palestinian civil society, the European Union can act to support the work of community building and human rights documentation before they disappear altogether, writes Tariq Azeez.

For Law researcher Théo Fournier, France’s pragmatic support for the self-declared interim government in Chad might serve in the short-term, but could easily backfire without a quick transition to a democratically elected leader.