Read more about the article The Arctic: Climate Change as a Driver for a Geopolitical Shift
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The Arctic: Climate Change as a Driver for a Geopolitical Shift

The issue of climate change is renowned for its global implications, not only on the environment but also on humans. Nevertheless, one of the shifts least touched upon is how the melting of the Arctic ice is changing the geopolitical theatre. All the major international actors are aware of this and have already developed policies to exploit or adapt to this shift. In this context, we witness bids from countries’ representatives and military exercises in the region.

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29 April 2022
Read more about the article NATO Activates Response Force For The First Time
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NATO Activates Response Force For The First Time

Recently, NATO activated the Alliance’s Response Force (NRF) for collective defence and deterrence for the first time. This measure comes as a response to “Russia’s massive military build-up” says NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. As Russia pushes deeper into Ukraine, units of the NRF, led by France, have already arrived in Romania and remain on high alert.

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16 March 2022
Read more about the article Ukrainian Crisis Makes Czech Drone Maker Withdraw from Russia
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Ukrainian Crisis Makes Czech Drone Maker Withdraw from Russia

Czech and European news outlets reported that the current crisis unfolding between Ukraine and Russia is forcing a company that produces Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to halt their branch in the latter country. The company in question is the Czechia based Primoco UAV, which has business manufacturing drones. With Czechia being a NATO and EU member, as the crisis began, the company has faced several challenges in Russia and decided to shut down its operations at the end of January. As of now, Primoco UAV is still in business but not in Russia. After the halt, their Russian subsidiary AO Primoco BPLA was sold to Russian buyers.

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28 February 2022
Read more about the article Nord Stream 2, a Rift in the EU’s Response to Russia?
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Nord Stream 2, a Rift in the EU’s Response to Russia?

As tensions continue to build surrounding the possible invasion of Ukraine by the Russian military, one issue has stood out as a potential point of tension: the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. A significant part of the European Union (EU) still depends on imported natural gas as a source of energy. A sizeable part of that comes from the Russian Federation, the primary import of natural gas to the EU, amounting to 40% of imports (Euractiv, 2022). In that context, any tension with Russia has the potential of having serious consequences for the energy supply of the Union. Russia has been known to use this leverage in negotiations in the past, such as when it turned off all supplies to Ukraine in January 2006 over a dispute regarding payments (Parfitt, the Guardian, 2006). At the time, this has pushed the EU member states to realise the danger of depending on Russia for energy, and incited them to pursue other sources, as well as increase storage capacity in case the EU’s supply was ever cut.

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18 February 2022
Read more about the article The Ukraine-Russia Crisis: Current Developments and Prospects for European Security
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The Ukraine-Russia Crisis: Current Developments and Prospects for European Security

In recent months tensions between Russia and NATO have reached a critical point as Russia has mobilised more than one hundred thousand troops along Ukraine’s border. Russia wants to coerce NATO to meet its demands by mobilising these troops. One of these demands holds that NATO will not expand further and halt all new membership plans, including Ukraine. In addition, Russia wants NATO to reduce its military presence in countries close to Russia’s borders, essentially returning NATO forces to where they were stationed before 1997 (Roth, 2021). Moscow states they are not planning any invasion. However, they argue that if their security demands are not met, their next step might be a military one (Kirby, 2022). The U.S. government expects that a Russian incursion into Ukraine could lead to the deaths of roughly 50.000 civilians and cause a refugee crisis in Europe (Cooper and Sanger, 2022).

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15 February 2022