19.06.2025
Analysts argue that Serbia must step up its efforts toward EU membership, with the opening of Cluster III in the accession negotiations expected to support that process. Serbia has all the potential to remain the driving force of European integration in the Western Balkans and to conclude accession negotiations with the EU in 2027—a year that represents a turning point in Serbia’s modern socio-political and economic development.
16.06.2025
As I explore in more detail in my recent book, See How They Run, leadership today demands both foresight and humility. We have a choice. We can treat AI as an opaque force that simply happens to us. Or we can understand it, shape it, and guide it in accordance with our deepest values. Let this be the moment we choose understanding over ignorance, governance over chaos, and humanity over hubris.
11.06.2025
As the numerous previous IFIMES studies found out, very future of the Trans-Caspian Pipeline depends on a complex interplay of international, regional, economic, and environmental factors. While Europe’s drive for energy decoupling pulls the project forward, geopolitical pressure from inner Eurasia actors like Russia and Iran; peripheral like China, India, GCC or the EU; or the external like EFTA, USA, and the like will remain an oscillatory challenge.
05.06.2025
Europe, worrying about the future, between the US withdrawing from NATO and Russian re-assertion have had to really think about what it had to do for the security of Europe. The US had a point when evaluating the cost of NATO over the years and the disproportionate amount which they had to pay compared with the European contribution. European countries, France and Germany to the fore, and Britain, have taken up the matter seriously and Europe is meeting to discuss security and defence requirements...
03.06.2025
Dragan Čović and HDZ have no legitimate grounds to block BiH’s path to the EU by disregarding the new parliamentary majority and shielding Milorad Dodik and the SNSD. The new majority would allow BiH’s EU integration process to be unblocked and pave the way for a range of reforms. A final ruling by the Court of BiH on Dodik’s appeal is expected soon. If the first-instance verdict is upheld, he will be barred from political activity, and the CEC is expected to revoke his mandate as President of RS.
28.05.2025
EU is gone or at least that it will be gone in the foreseeable future, we can only ask ourselves what is next for us. Is it a return to the dark past of the 1990s or an even more terrifying return to the nineteenth century when the borders of the great empires will once again expand in the Balkans and the spears of discord will once again be broken here, and we all serve them only as a coin for change. At the moment this text is being written, May 28, we can definitely say: Europe, thank you for nothing.
26.05.2025
In the context of ongoing global transformations — which have coincided with the inauguration of the new US administration under Donald Trump — it would be reasonable to examine the recent wave of accelerated developments: the expansion of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation to the borders of the European Union via Belarus’s accession; the UK–Ukraine agreement; the US–Armenia strategic partnership; the Russia–Iran agreement of 17 January 2025; and the China–Iran partnership agreement signed in 2021.
22.05.2025
The current mainstream European and Japanese political leaders and policy elites have been accustomed and, probably, obsessed to adhere to the liberal international order. Should Europe and Japan dare to restore the status quo ante, they would exhaust their power capacity and fail to become constitutive plays of a next multipolar system. This means that such a system would consist of four great powers--the United States, China, Russia, and perhaps, India.
12.05.2025
As the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in peacebuilding grows, so too does the need to address the fundamental biases embedded within the data that drive AI systems. Currently, over 90% of AI training datasets are sourced from Europe and North America, yet the majority of global conflicts occur outside these regions. This disparity creates a critical challenge: AI systems trained on data that reflects the Global North often fail to account for the realities of conflict in the Global South.
08.05.2025
The upcoming elections are widely regarded as a ‘last chance,’ serving as a critical test for democracy and institutional reform. Albania’s EU integration process has entered a delicate phase, with official Brussels now expecting tangible results rather than declarative statements. Albanians are increasingly weary of Edi Rama and the Socialist Party, and many have lost faith in the political elite, demanding meaningful change across all areas of public life.
02.05.2025
BiH’s future lies in NATO membership, as the most effective response to all expansionist agendas in the region, whether Greater Serbian, Croatian, Albanian, Hungarian, or Bulgarian. Each of these projects has been directed against BiH. The two US-sponsored agreements safeguard the integrity of the country, a status that is not expected to change. Any state contemplating territorial expansion should reflect on the fate of Slobodan Milošević and Franjo Tuđman, and the failure of their policies in BiH.
28.04.2025
Necessary factual information that fuels public perception to accurately reflect the will of the people in elections is being threatened like never before. We're facing wave after wave of tsunamis of AI and human-generated disinformation. Only by adopting innovative approaches that acknowledge basic human motivations can we hope to effectively combat this existential threat to democracy.
