The lack of a formal military alliance or mutual trust makes the current China-Russia partnership no less threatening to international stability. Key takeaways: As history shows, strategic cooperation between major powers does not require trust or shared ideology; temporary alignment alone can enable rapid and highly disruptive shifts in the international order. A comparable dynamic… Continue reading What the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact teaches us about today’s alignment between Russia and China
Taiwan’s solidarity with the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 has largely vanished from collective memory. Yet newly examined archives show that, in the uprising’s aftermath, Taiwan mounted an island-wide campaign to support the Hungarian people. In other words, an authoritarian regime publicly aligned itself with another nation’s struggle for freedom. What first appears to be a… Continue reading “We stand with the brave Hungarian people”: Taiwan’s forgotten solidarity with the Hungarian Revolution of 1956
This CEIAS report offers the first comprehensive, bottom-up analysis of Europe-Taiwan relations across 30 European countries. By systematically examining bilateral ties rather than treating Europe as a single actor, it provides a new empirical foundation for assessing the scope, depth, and current limits of Europe’s engagement with Taiwan. Since 2020, Europe’s approach to Taiwan has… Continue reading Partners in need, partners indeed? Tracking Europe-Taiwan relations amidst global disruption
There is no intellectual justification for the West’s obsession with labeling China experts as “hawks” or “doves.” Rooted in Cold War binaries, it prevents viable policy and mirrors the very friend-enemy dichotomy liberal democracies claim to reject. An alternative framework—“autocracy competence”—combines the desire for cooperation with an awareness of systemic autocratic limitations. Key takeaways: Drop… Continue reading Why the China “hawk-dove” framing is an own goal; “autocracy competence” points the way
A coherent, flexible Indo-Pacific strategy—firmly rooted in European values and interests as well as in the realities, needs, and priorities of the region—is crucial if the EU is to remain an influential player in this key arena of the 21st century. This requires regional and sector-specific approaches tailored to different subregions and countries, within an… Continue reading From strategy to action: The European Union in the Indo-Pacific
