The Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games have already served one very important purpose: helping to thaw inter-Korean relations. Since engagement is a key element of President Moon Jae-in’s North Korea policy, it is highly likely that Seoul will continue to seek exchanges with Pyongyang. It is thus up to the Kim Jong-un regime to accept Seoul’s olive branch and contribute to improving inter-Korean relations. With Pyongyang continuing to support – or at least accept – domestic economic reform and marketization, economic and technical support from Seoul is crucial. Indeed, the goodwill that most South Koreans still seem to hold towards their poorer Northern neighbour and the funding that South Korea can provide cannot be matched by any other country. For Seoul, engagement can serve to ease inter-Korean tensions, make it ever-more difficult for Pyongyang to reverse reforms, and put South Korea in the driving seat of Korean Peninsula affairs.

The IES Doctoral researcher Matilda Axelson has been involved in the development of a recently launched report by IISD (International Institute for Sustainable Development) and the i24C (the Industrial Innovation for Competitiveness initiative), titled “Low-carbon innovation for sustainable infrastructure – The role of public procurement”.

Public procurement is a powerful tool which can be used to generate demand for innovative, low-carbon solutions that go in line with governmental goals, such as employment, sustainable development and a low-carbon transition for infrastructure. The public purse has a particularly strong impact on European goods, services and infrastructure, and can, if wisely managed, act as an enabler for driving markets towards more sustainable production patterns.

The German Bertelsmann Stiftung has today released its updated Transformation Index (BTI 2018). Every second year, the BTI measures political and economic progress in 129 transformation countries around the world and belongs to the most detailed comparative country analyses.

IES researcher Jan Claudius Völkel serves as the BTI’s Regional Coordinator Middle East & North Africa, and is hence responsible for the detailed assessment of 19 MENA countries, which stretch from Morocco in the West to Iran in the East, and from Turkey in the North to Sudan in the South. For this, he has organised and supervised the conduct of independent analyses by two renowned experts per country. The findings are worrying: overall, democracy has reached its lowest level ever in the MENA region, only Tunisia has stabilised its achievements since the 2011 revolution.

Following the University Council’s approval on 30 March 2018, the Annual Report 2017 of the IES is now available online. In its 15^th anniversary year, the IES organised 33 public events, awarded 4 PhDs (bringing the total of PhDs awarded by the institute to 32), produced 117 publications, of which 24 peer-reviewed articles, and 25 book chapters, and collected 4 academic awards. Additionally, the IES also internally published 7 policy briefs, 2 policy papers and 7 working papers. Our Institute now counts 106 people or 48.9 full-time equivalents.

On 21 February 2018 the EU Commission issued a new report with strategic recommendations to maximise the impact of the future EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (FP9, successor to Horizon 2020) through mission-oriented policy. The report, entitled "Mission-Oriented Research & Innovation in the European Union", was written by Professor Mariana Mazzucato and is likely to have a significant influence on future EU R&I programmes. With a contribution from IES Project Researcher Tomas Wyns, the Institute for European Studies was one of the European research institutes that were consulted for input.

On 26 September, IES Executive Director Anthony Antoine delivered a keynote speech on "the salient role of the universities in implementing the UN 2030 Agenda and the particular importance of societal impact of multidisciplinary research in developing sustainable and global solutions" at the Helsinki Challenge Global Impact Camp in Brussels. The Global Impact Camp in Brussels was a two-day intensive co-creation session focusing on societal impact of research, funding and collaboration with international experts and EU decision-makers. 

Science Diplomacy as a practice has a long past but only a short history. It became a policy concern of Foreign Affairs only recently. This article points to the strengths and weaknesses of Science Diplomacy as a soft power instrument aimed at improving International Relations. It also lists a number of threats coming from populist and protectionist forces that hinder the further development of Science Diplomacy. At the same time, the current situation also bears opportunities such as the potential to develop a scientist-driven Science Diplomacy aimed at safeguarding the values of science and at strengthening the input of science in humanity coping with global problems. This can best be realised by establishing mission-driven networks of state policy-makers, scientists and relevant stakeholders.

In the framework of his MSCA research project “The role of national parliaments in the Arab transformation processes”, IES researcher Dr Jan Claudius Völkel spent two weeks for research in Egypt recently. Besides meetings and discussions with high-level observers of, and experts on, the Egyptian parliament, the main purpose of his stay, he also gave two lectures on different topics at prestigious Political Science departments.

The shared threat emanating from Pyongyang creates a centripetal force that binds Washington, Tokyo, and Seoul because the three partners need mutual assistance. On the other hand, however, the high stakes involved in the North Korea policy of these states also intensify discord over the means to address the threat, thereby producing a centrifugal force. Policies that hurt each other’s fundamental security interests have to be pursued only with careful consultation with the partners, for both the policies’ effectiveness and for the maintenance of the partnerships. For effective cooperation, the U.S., Japanese, and ROK governments must all embrace the centripetal force of the North Korean threat while being mindful of the centrifugal force.

IES Professor Sebastian Oberthür gave a keynote presentation on “Polycentric Climate Governance: Challenges and Opportunities for the EU” at the Final Conclusions Meeting of the COST Action INOGOV, a pan-European network of research excellence dedicated to understanding policy and governance innovation for climate change, on 15 March 2018 in the Norway House in Brussels. 

The Institute for European Studies and the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy organize a lecture series entitled "Masterclass Middle East: Geopolitics in Europe's Neighbourhood". The first lecture will take place on February 21 with Peter Frankopan (Professor World History, Oxford University) who is the author of the book "The Silk Roads". Introduction will be given by VUB Rector, Caroline Pauwels. The full programme can be found by visiting this link. Participation is free. Please register here or by sending an e-mail to: office@timep-europe.org

The EL-CSID Workshop on "Diplomacy and Development: Trends and Challenges for Europe and Its Partners" seeks to investigate the role of cultural and scientific diplomacy with respect to the foreign policy ambitions of the EU and its member states. Discussion will also cover other forms of the ‘new diplomacy’. The workshop is organised by Nazarbayev University, in collaboration with the University of Warwick and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, and will be held on 14-15 May 2018 in Leuven, Belgium.

Interested in a trip to the Big Apple that will offer you first-hand experience in Transatlantic relations? And in a unique opportunity to work and learn in an exciting multicultural environment? And what about a visit to UN HQ? Then enroll in one of our 1- or 2-year study programmes and we might choose you to join nine fellow students for a trip you will never forget!

On 2 March 2018, Mathias Holvoet defended his PhD thesis entitled “A policy to commit atrocity, understanding the “policy element” for the purpose of defining crimes against humanity”. His promotors were Prof. dr. P. De Hert and Prof. dr. S. Smis.

As a PhD researcher at the IES, Mathias was affiliated with the Faculty of Law and Criminology.  He was a member of the IES’ Migration, Diversity and Justice Cluster. Within the field of International Criminal Law, his work focused on the law of crimes against humanity, the relationship of International Criminal Law with neighbouring fields such as International Human Rights Law, International Humanitarian Law and International Refugee Law and the continuing relevance of hybrid or internationalized criminal mechanisms within International Criminal Justice.

On 23 January the PARENT project team met with a diverse set of stakeholders, all active in their own way to help transform energy-related attitudes in Brussels. Project participants, social workers, representatives from citizen associations, local governments and Bruxelles Environnement sat around the table to map energy reduction and sustainability initiatives and categorize them by actor and focus. We also assessed how these measures are communicated and offered to citizens.

The paper examines the evolution of Europe's geopolitical architecture, and its fit within the broader transatlantic/Western system. The central argument is that all the media buzz about Europe's many crises (financial, migration, populism, Brexit) may have prevented Europeans from appreciating the most geopolitically significant crisis the old continent is undergoing: a balance of power crisis. The author argues that Europe's balance of power crisis is animated by three structural developments that are testing the fabric of the postwar European geopolitical architecture: US retrenchment from Europe, Germany's emerging leadership position within the EU, and Russia's attempts to recreate a sphere of influence in Eastern Europe. 

On Friday 29 September the IES celebrated its 15th anniversary. Our institute started off as an initiative by our former President Prof. Dr. Em. Bart De Schutter with a handful of people involved. Today, we are an established player in the area of European studies, involved in dozens of prestigious research projects and with 121 people directly associated.