June 20, 2014

Summary

While the design of the print version of Diplomaatia has remained the same since 2005, as of the June-July number of 2014, the journal will be presented to the readers with a completely new design and in colour instead of the old black-and-white edition.

The opening article of Diplomaatia is the President of Estonia Toomas Hendrik Ilves’s piece on Security in Northern Europe after the collapse of the Helsinki Final Act. “The Anschluss of Crimea that is currently taking place in Ukraine now; what already happened in Georgia in 2008, show that that Helsinki Final Act of 1975 stating that state borders cannot be changed by force, is no longer valid. Today, again, when one member withdraws from the agreement, we must rethink the security architecture of Europe“ writes President Ilves. “We can only hope that Europe will not respond to the collapse of the Helsinki Act with a turn to the Stockholm syndrome.”
Jaap Ora, a diplomat, explores transatlantic relations in the context of the Ukrainian crisis. It is crucial to improve foreign political coordination between the European Union and United States within the field of politics; countries like Estonia are by nature the most suited for the role of a uniting entity in transatlantic relations—according to the author, we have always viewed the transatlantic space as a whole.
The analyst Richard Weitz writes about the “energy diplomacy” of Russia and its potential influences on Europe, the United States and transatlantic relations. “Russia’s ῾energy weaponʼ has the potential to create a wedge in the U.S. strategic partnerships with Europe. With key NATO members increasingly depending on Russian imports, a Sino-Russian strategic partnership could exploit the energy trade to destabilize, or threaten to destabilize, the European economy” writes Weitz.
The historian and politician Mart Nutt explores the essence of Byzantine politics and its working mechanisms in his article. Nutt considers that the most conspicuous feature that infallibly indicates to Byzantine politics is accusing others of things one is doing or plans to do himself.
Erik Männik, researcher at ICDS, writes of the military special traits of the Ukrainian crisis, while Kaarel Kaas, ICDS, maps Russia’s military capabilities in the Baltic Sea region.
Mariliis Mets, a political scientist, introduces the background and nature of French politics with regard to Africa; the historian Erkki Bahovski reviews Margaret MacMillan’s book The War that Ended Peace. How Europe Abandoned Peace for the First World War.

 

This article was published in ICDS Diplomaatia magazine.

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