My latest guest blog for @biepag.bsky.social on how Europe+ can take the initiative in the #WB6 in the interests of these countries' citizens - and their own. www.biepag.eu/blog/europe-...

DPC's Valery Perry speaks with @pippagallop.bsky.social of @ceebankwatch.bsky.social in the latest DPC Voice, our new podcast, regarding the Southern Interconnection pipeline project, which has been aggressively pushed forward by the US. open.spotify.com/episode/6uug...

Latest opinion piece by Senior Associates @kurtbassuener.bsky.social and @tobyvogel.bsky.social: the EU should push back against a Trump-backed pipeline project in Bosnia and Herzegovina

We've been led to think that in an election 50%+1 represents a majority of preferences. Are there better options? In the latest episode of #DPCVoice, Senior Associate Valery Perry spoke w/ Peter Emerson of the De Borda Institute to try to answer this question. open.spotify.com/episode/0WHG...

DPC's latest, by @kurtbassuener.bsky.social, on how Europe+ ought to respond to the challenge of succeeding High Rep Christian Schmidt in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It cannot simply be a personnel decision - it constitutes a strategic choice in a region where the EU has great leverage.

1/Potez dolazi nakon mjeseci špekulacija da SAD o pritisku na Schmidta. To označava jednu u nizu promjena pristupa SAD prema BiH počevši od prošlog Oktobra sa ukidanjem sankcija osuđenom bivšem predsjedniku RS-a Dodiku, koji je i dalje de facto lider tog entiteta. www.oslobodjenje.ba/vijesti/bih/...

1/ Two days before his semiannual report to the UN Security Council, High Representative Christian Schmidt announced that he would be resigning his post as international High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).

1/ Resource extraction, particularly mining of critical minerals, has become an increasingly visible focus of external actors in the Western Balkans. @dpcglobal.bsky.social's case study on the Vares mining project provides a detailed look into the structural dynamics at play, domestic and foreign,…

DPC's latest argues that the people of Hungary, who shook off an authoritarian, Russia- and MAGA-aligned regime, deserve some introspection about what made Orbán's abuse of power possible – from the EU and from other pro-democracy forces. Business as usual should not be an option.

DPC is starting an occasional series of interviews with people who have interesting perspectives on democratic opportunities, democratic threats, effective governance, changing global geopolitics, and other issues.

Were the Trump administration’s actions in Venezuela the first chance to see what operationalization of the new US National Security Strategy looks like? Senior Associate @valeryperry.bsky.social talked about this with WXXI’s Evan Dawson, exploring the downsides of a “sphere of influence” approach.

The latest from @dpcglobal.bsky.social colleague @valeryperry.bsky.social, on today's Putin-Trump meeting

"Vučić’s increasingly brutal repression of peaceful protests has put the EU’s policy at an inflection point..." Latest by @tobyvogel.bsky.social and @kurtbassuener.bsky.social for @euobserver.com www.euobserver.com/eu-and-the-w...

1/ Another sign that voters in the democracies are repelled by what they see in the US under Trump. Democratic solidarity is not hubbed in Washington anymore. apnews.com/article/aust...

1/ Canadians have demonstrated their commitment to sovereignty & dignity, but also the profound impact of Trump’s policy & rhetoric. www.democratizationpolicy.org/canadians-le...

My latest blog post for @dpcglobal.bsky.social - The Fear, Patronage, and Inat Politics of Trump 2.0 www.democratizationpolicy.org/the-fear-pat...

Alleged EU statements reported by Bosnian media that EUFOR cannot conduct arrests seem based on the EU's political narrowing of its Dayton Annex 1A & 2 mandate. The renewal by the UNSC is also clear - EUFOR has the authority to take "all necessary measures" to ensure a safe and secure environment...

1/ Latest article by DPC senior associate @valeryperry.bsky.social for @projectsyndicate.bsky.social, tying the Western Balkans to numerous processes and phenomena in the Trump 2.0 age: www.project-syndicate.org/magazine/wes...

DPC's @kurtbassuener.bsky.social appeared with @jasminmuj.bsky.social and SNSD's Srdjan Mazalica on @aljazeeraenglish.bsky.social's Inside Story yesterday on RS President Milorad Dodik's challenge to the Dayton order and rule of law in #Bosnia. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Twi7...

DPC's blog on yesterday's ugly Oval Office spectacle and the importance of tomorrow's meeting of European leaders, with President Zelenskyy, in London. Europe+ must now be the universal connector of democracies. www.democratizationpolicy.org/the-twilight...

1/ Yesterday’s meeting between Ukrainian President Zelenskyy & US President Trump at the White House, in which Trump and VP JD Vance hectored Zelenskyy, who energetically refuted their false claims & emphasized his country’s need for security guarantees in any peace agreement,...

DPC condemns today’s raids against civic groups in Serbia as an attack on civil society. This blatant attempt at intimidation follows an assault by the Trump administration and Elon Musk on US support for liberal democracy around the world. We stand by the civic groups targeted by the Vučić regime.

Senior Associate @valeryperry.bsky.social appearing on #NPR affiliate WXXI's Connections with Evan Dawson on the tectonic shifts of the past month, both in the US' international posture and impact domestically. 👇

The latest from us on the recent tectonic shifts and their implications. 👇

A thread by @kurtbassuener.bsky.social on Dodik's challenge and why the EU needs to step up on deterrence in the Balkans right now. 👇

A blog with our collective assessment of European defense and democracy in the wake of Trump's confrontation with both - and the links to where the EU has the greatest potential leverage: the Western Balkans. www.democratizationpolicy.org/european-def...

1/DPC’s Valery Perry reflects on what the attack on USAID may mean for democratic development and governance not just around the world – but in the US itself. www.democratizationpolicy.org/to-strangle-...

1/ The events of the past week have crystallized a previously inchoate sense of foreboding into a recognition of a tectonic shift in transatlantic relations. The level of distrust in Europe toward the US is palpable, and the challenge recognized as existential.

In their latest op-ed for @euobserver.com, DPC co-founders @kurtbassuener.bsky.social and @tobyvogel.bsky.social write that the EU's position on the mass protests in Serbia effectively amounts to siding with the regime and needs to be urgently rethought.

DPC Senior Associate @kurtbassuener.bsky.social joins a distinguished panel assembled by @geopower-eu.bsky.social to discuss the implications of Trump's policies for #Ukraine #Moldova #Georgia and the #WesternBalkans Thursday, 4 PM CET. More info: bit.ly/40l4N3f

1/ Following the US election, DPC’s @valeryperry.bsky.social has brought together thoughts based on years working on & studying issues of good governance, rights-based democracy, state capture & kleptocracy in the Western Balkans and beyond in a new essay consisting of 17 short, interlinked texts.

1/ @ec.europa.eu President @vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu told media after last night’s EU-Western Balkans Summit that on Serbia’s accession negotiations, the @EUCouncil “agreed to move forward on the opening of Cluster 3, the letter is sent.”

1/ DPC is again troubled by the publication of today’s General Affairs Council conclusions on enlargement in which language reflecting Croatia’s divisive, ethnoterritorial agenda in #Bosnia and Herzegovina is incorporated. These will be endorsed by the @EUCouncil this Thursday.

!/ Today, Senior Associate @kurtbassuener.bsky.social proposes in @justsecurity.org that the outgoing Biden administration act to break institutional inertia in confronting the long-standing deterrence gap in #Bosnia and Herzegovina, providing a catalyst for the overdue reinforcement of EUFOR.

In the first episode of GEOPOWER Talks, DPC senior associate @tobyvogel.bsky.social discusses this year's European Commission reports on the candidate countries with colleagues from the @geopower-eu.bsky.social project, funded under the Horizon Europe program. #GEOPOWERTalks

DPC is seeking innovative applications of models developed with Eurothink to understand the links between corruption, radicalization & democratic decline - & how citizens respond to such dynamics. For more information please see: www.democratizationpolicy.org/call-for-pap...

DPC, concerned by the High Representative's reported arguments in favor of a partial revision of the Kovacevic decision by the European Court of Human Rights in his submission to the Court, worked with Axiom Advocates (Edinburgh) to submit...

An op-ed co-authored by DPC's @tobyvogel.bsky.social and Bodo Weber and published by @euobserver.bsky.social offers one observation and two asks. The observation: the EU won’t be able to substitute for US power across Europe in the immediate term, but it can do so in the Balkans. To mitigate...

In this post, we spell out what’s at stake in today’s vote in the Security Council on renewing the mandate of EUFOR in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Even in case of a successful renewal, the West needs to get serious about its deterrence failure in the country.