International Affairs Archives

AnalysesInternational Affairs

The recent coup in Niger, which took place on July 26, 2023, is just the latest episode in a series of events that have sent shockwaves through the region and left governments and international actors scrambling to respond. Niger, a country that experienced a relatively fair democratic transition in 2021 with the election of Mohamed Bazoum as president, has once again descended into chaos. The opposition challenged the election results, and an attempted coup was reportedly foiled just two days before Bazoum was to take office.

PublicationsInternational Affairs

Ten years after the Arab Spring, the change promised by that fateful season has been minimal at best. The common thread moving through Arab society in this third millennium is precisely the overall feeling of incompletion, making any prospect of economic revival more dismal due to the arrival of a lethal health crisis. This timely publication, the product of a two day conference held in December 2020, aims to bring together some of the best minds in reflection on the past decade of stumbles and obstacles in the Arab world and what hope does the Tunisian Exception hold for the future.

Our Initiatives International Affairs

The current political situation in Post-Soviet countries, primarily the Russian Federation, raises questions about the cultural roots of today’s prevailing nationalist political ideologies and behaviours. The international scientific community has to overcome the lack of knowledge about Russia’s Post-Soviet history, also in order to avoid the sheer repetition of old clichés – liberal -western opinions versus a despotic-eastern world

Videos International Affairs

A recent webinar held for the launch of the Transatlantic Platform for Democracy in Turkey sheds light on the case that has fuelled new diplomatic tension between Turkey and Western countries.

ConveningInternational Affairs

December

2023

The conference will examine why democracy has struggled to take root in the Arab world: historical factors such as the consequences of oil resources, autocratic regimes, the inability to effectively implement economic reforms, the historical legacy of the alliance with the Soviet Union and the effects of colonialism, and in more recent times the negative parabola of the “Arab Springs” and in particular the failure of the compromise between Islamic and secular political forces that had made possible the beginning of a democratic path for Tunisia, now dominated by an autocratic power that arrests opponents.

May

2023

Boston College

Through its lectures, workshops, the Seminars and Conference will seek a structural, in-depth understanding of the way wars and the collapse of empires between the 19th and 20th centuries have allowed for the formation and strengthening of national identities and narratives, as well as the self-recognition of nations emerging from such processes in the global arena. It will focus primarily on dynamics that have emerged from the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, and Russian empires and how these have led to the reappearance of nationalism on the international stage

November

2022

Online (Zoom)

Join us on Monday November 7th at 10am EST and 4pm CET to unpack an historic 20th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. With Xi’s unprecedented reconfirmation, what can we expect from China over the next five years or more? What does it look towards for its future both internally, regionally and internationally?