India and the EU: deal-making rather than diplomacy?

In a new LSE IDEAS report titled “Europe in an Asian Century”, Richard Youngs writes that the EU’s highly mercantile form of commercial diplomacy with Asian countries, including India, is unlikely to serve its own long-term interests

How we can reframe the debate about Europe’s populist threat

Is Europe facing a lurch toward populism and, if so, does this trend pose a threat for democracy? Richard Youngs writes that it is important to recognise the diversity among parties that have been labelled ‘populist’, rather than simply regarding all movements of this nature as negative developments. He argues that there is no merit in simply deriding the choices of people who voted for Brexit, Donald Trump, or other European populist parties, and that it is necessary to unpack the different dynamics at work in the shift toward anti-establishment politics

Democracy after the European Parliament elections. CEPS Policy Insights No 2019-10/June 2019

As the dust settles from last month’s European elections and the new Parliament begins its work, Richard Youngs, senior fellow in the Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program, based at Carnegie Europe, stands back from immediate political battles and assesses the longer-term implications for European democracy. What do the elections mean in a deeper sense for the quality of European democracy? What do the changes they usher in mean for democracy in a more structural sense? There are no straightforward answers

Is ‘hybrid geopolitics’ the next EU foreign policy doctrine?

The EU has faced a diverse range of criticisms over its actions during the Ukraine crisis. While some observers have accused EU states of being too weak in the face of Russia’s annexation of Crimea, others suggest that the crisis itself emerged from a misguided attempt by the EU to push for an Association Agreement with Ukraine. Richard Youngs highlights that the crisis has encouraged the EU to become a different kind of policy actor, with less emphasis on promoting EU norms and rules, and a greater focus on the potential geopolitical impact of different policy options

Keeping EU-Asia Re-engagement on track. EU Centre Singapore Policy Brief No. 8, January 2015

The relationship between the European Union (EU) and Asia is in flux. The EU intensified its economic ties to Asia and boosted its security cooperation in the region in 2011 and 2012. But new challenges, including the crises in Ukraine and the Middle East, have made it difficult to sustain this incipient momentum. There are a number of steps that EU and Asian governments can and should take to continue to strengthen their relations

COVID‐19 and democratic resilience

The COVID-19 experience has sharpened debates about democracy's future worldwide. In reflecting on these debates, this paper does three things. First, it assesses how resilient democracy has been in the COVID-19 emergency. Second, it examines the effect the pandemic has had on the pre-existing trends in democratic politics. And third, it suggests ways in which the COVID-19 crisis both requires and possibly opens the door to democratic rejuvenation