In 2005, AEI's European Outlook, a bimonthly essay devoted to European affairs and their bearing on transatlantic policy issues, considered issues such as the crisis of "civilizational morale" in Europe; the impact of Ukraine's "Orange Revolution" on other peoples of the former USSR; and whether Europe can do away with nationalism.
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Resident Fellow Radek Sikorski moderating a June debate between Sabine Herold and Charles Kupchan on the European economic model |
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At the end of January, the Council of the European Union suspended diplomatic sanctions against Cuba and decided to resume high-level relations with the Castro government, thus ending its long-held policy to speak only with Cuban dissidents. In March, Radek Sikorski, director of AEI's New Atlantic Initiative (NAI), convened a panel of experts on EU affairs and Cuban policy to discuss what effect the European policy change could have within Cuba. Arlette Conzemius and Juan Jose Buitrago de Benito of the Spanish embassy stated that European policy toward Cuba was aimed at improving the human rights situation there, not at changing Cuba's political system.
The NAI co-hosted a conference in the Netherlands that examined Islam in Europe. Mr. Sikorski, Danielle Pletka, Reuel Marc Gerecht, and Michael Rubin joined leading American and European scholars in a series of panel discussions to assess the course of Muslim integration in Europe and the United States.
A panel discussion in June with Mr. Sikorski, David Frum, Wim Geerts of the Dutch embassy, Denis Pietton of the French embassy, and Adam Posen of the Institute for International Economics focused on the French and Dutch rejection of the proposed European Union Constitution and the implications for the future of Europe.
Mr. Sikorski organized a full-day conference in Gdansk, Poland, in August to honor the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Solidarity movement. Reflecting on how Poland's self-limiting revolution was accomplished and how those lessons can be applied to nascent democratic movements around the world today, the conference featured a series of eight panel discussions addressing issues ranging from democratic change in the Middle East to reform in Russia and Cuba. Former U.S. national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski's keynote address capped off this assembly of politicians, scholars, and advocates of freedom. In the fall, Mr. Sikorski left AEI after winning election to the Polish senate and was appointed as that nation's defense minister.
The NAI hosted special lectures and discussions throughout the year with European political officials such as Viktor Orban, former prime minister of Hungary; Pascal Lamy, former commissioner for trade at the European Commission and now WTO director-general; Boris Tarasyuk, acting foreign minister of Ukraine; and Juan F. López Aguilar, minister of justice of Spain.
AEI's quarterly Russian Outlook, written by Leon Aron, analyzes key issues in the economic, social, and political aspects of Russia's transition to democracy. In 2005, issues considered the risks President Vladimir Putin assumed in strengthening the Russian state at any cost; the conflicting elements of authoritarianism and democracy in Russia's institutions; and the Russian draft.
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World Bank Group president Paul Wolfowitz and former president of Spain Jose Maria Aznar |
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After years of progress toward liberal democracy, capitalism, and international cooperation, Russia may once again be a strategic problem for the United States and its allies. A conference in February organized by Mr. Aron examined what the strategic priorities of the U.S. relationship with Moscow should be and whether Washington can stand up to President Putin's rising authoritarianism while still cooperating with him on counterterrorism, nonproliferation, and energy security. In October, Mr. Aron hosted a full-day conference to consider what this "authoritarian drift" means for the future of Russia's political, economic, and foreign policies.
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