International Crisis Group
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EUROPE PROGRAM

Crisis Group's Europe program researches and advocates on the Balkans, the Caucasus and, since March 2007, on Turkey, and monitors conflict potentials in Cyprus and Moldova. The policy analysts are based in field offices; the Program Director is located in Istanbul.

Crisis Group also offers analysis of the European Union's crisis response capability, its institutions in charge of and mechanisms designed for crisis prevention and conflict management.

Balkans

The Balkans Project Director is based in Pristina, and the Senior Analyst in Sarajevo. They monitor the Kosovo status determination and EU accession processes. Research and advocacy more broadly focuses on the following topics:

  • Bosnia and Herzegovina: Implementation of the Dayton agreement, in particular police, economic and structural reforms; role of international supervisory institutions, especially the OHR; effects of Kosovo status process on politics in Republika Srpska; domestic politics and power sharing; Islamic movements. 
  • Kosovo: Kosovo's final status process and progress as a newly-independent state; role of international supervisory institutions, especially the recently approved European Union mission (EULEX); security risks for both the Kosovo Albanian and Serb population; decentralisation; economic potential.
  • Serbia: Belgrade's policy on Kosovo; EU-Serbia accession talks; visa facilitation and readmission agreement; cooperation with the ICTY; domestic politics and power sharing; legal, institutional and economic reforms.

Crisis Group also watches political and security developments in Albania, Croatia, Macedonia and Montenegro, where conflict risks have decreased but not disappeared.

Caucasus

The Caucasus is covered by the Project Director based in Tbilisi and two Analysts in Baku and Tbilisi who research and advocate on issues related to the conflict regions Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia, and Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian-controlled enclave on a territory internationally recognised as part of Azerbijan. Besides an overall concentration on the countries' relations with Russia, and to the EU within its European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), the focus is on the following aspects:

  • Armenia: Opportunities for resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and progress of the OSCE Minsk Group negotiations, Armenia-Turkey relations; domestic political developments.
  • Azerbaijan: Opportunities for resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and progress of the OSCE Minsk Group negotiations; Azerbaijan’s energy revenues and public spending; domestic political developments; security sector reform.
  • Georgia: Political and security developments following the August 2008 conflict with Russia over Abkhazia and South Ossetia; UNMIG and OSCE performance; internal political power shifts; Georgia’s minorities; regional and religious movements.

Crisis Group has begun to look at conflict issues in the North Caucasus; the first report was on causes of conflict in Daghestan.

Turkey

Crisis Group has been active in Turkey since early 2007. The Istanbul-based Turkey/Cyprus Project Director researches and advocates mainly on Turkey's growing interaction with the European Union; its complex, often critical relationships in a conflict-prone neighbourhood that includes the Balkans, the Caucasus and the Middle East; and on Turkish contributions to international peacekeeping forces. The Istanbul office also reports on Cyprus.

Cyprus

Crisis Group monitors opportunities for resolution of the Cyprus conflict.

Moldova

Crisis Group addresses the frozen conflict in the Transdniestrian region, and analyses the chance for resolution.

The European Union and its crisis response capability

In two early papers – a briefing and a report – published June 2001 on the EU's crisis response capability, Crisis Group provides a snapshot of EU institutions in charge of and mechanisms designed for crisis prevention and conflict management, and examines the specific role played by the European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO). 

An April 2002 briefing provides an update on developments in EU foreign policy and related structures, seeking to evaluate these against the EU's growing ambition to expand and improve its capacity for crisis prevention and conflict management. The paper pays special attention to the EU's response to the threat of terrorism in a post-11 September context and the evolution of the EU's military and civilian crisis management capacities.

A  January 2005 report revises the EU's crisis response capability and assesses attempts to establish an EU Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) with a European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP) component as the Union's second pillar. The paper takes into account the EU enlargement, the constitutional treaty and the EU's first missions abroad, in particular.

Crisis Group's Europe program is coordinated in Brussels. For more information, see the related project pages (links above).

 


Recent reports & briefings


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