In The News

UN, Rights Groups Say EU-Turkey Migrant Deal May Be Illegal

Stephanie Nebehay and Gabriela Baczynska March 9, 2016
European nations are trying to stop the flow of refugees fleeing conflict in the Middle East with tight border controls, and some leaders hope to return migrants who arrive by boats. A Turkish proposal to accept the return of some migrants in exchange for funding and visa-free travel for Turks could be illegal, warns the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. International law would require...

Rising Tide

March 7, 2016
As Macedonia, Austria and other European nations tighten borders against refugees fleeing Syria and other conflict zones, Greece must manage a bottleneck. Tent camps and reception camps are over-crowded, and food is in short supply. “Now almost 30,000 migrants are bottled up in Greece” and “local aid agencies worry that 200,000 people may arrive in March alone,” reports the Economist. NGOs and...

Donald Trump, Viktor Orban and the West’s Great Walls

Gideon Rachman March 4, 2016
Fear encourages isolation, and in the course of a few decades, Republican politicians in the United States have shifted from demanding that East Germany tear down the Berlin wall to demanding a massive wall along the US border with Mexico. Europe, too, is adding barriers to block refugees fleeing war in the Middle East. “The journey from Reagan to Trump – from tearing down walls to putting them...

Russia: Only Tactical Success in the Middle East

Thomas Graham March 1, 2016
Despite an economic downturn and depressed oil prices, Russia wrested control in eastern Ukraine and Syria. Russian President Vladimir Putin is taking a gamble “that Europe would eventually seize an offer of cooperation in Syria to constrict the migrant flow and contain the terrorist threat and that such cooperation would sap Europe’s aversion to Russian behavior in Ukraine, leading to a decision...

Turkey: The Eastern Question Is Back

Jonathan Marcus February 26, 2016
The Middle East and Europe have a long history of shifting boundaries and periods of destabilization. Europe viewed Turkey as a bulwark against Russian influence, explains Jonathan Marcus, diplomatic correspondent for BBC News. He points to the Crimean War of the 1850s, with France and Great Britain battling Russian influence in Turkey: “Times change - but geography doesn't, and strategic...

After EU Deal, British Voters Weigh Costs and Benefits of Brexit

David R. Cameron February 25, 2016
Like other nations, the United Kingdom faces ongoing pressures from debt, demographics, and refugees fleeing the Middle East. Some politicians use the European Union as a convenient scapegoat for their own troubles. In 2013, British Prime Minister David Cameron pledged to renegotiate terms of Britain’s membership in the EU. A referendum on whether the country should remain a member is set for...

EU's Real Brake Isn't Britain but Franco-German Impasse

Paul Taylor February 22, 2016
Britain’s prime minister has negotiated a deal, carving out exemptions to its membership with the European Union, and analysts wonder if other members might also try their own negotiations which could “ultimately lead to a disintegration of the union,” reports Paul Taylor for Reuters. Taylor adds that more challenging than Britain’s possible exit “is a long-running Franco-German impasse on how to...