AUTHOR'S BIO

Álvaro de Vasconcelos

Álvaro de Vasconcelos is the Director of the European Union Institute for Security Studies in Paris.

RECENT COMMENTARIES

FEATURED COMMENTARIES

Bush’s Dying Days in Gaza

Álvaro de Vasconcelos Series: Europe at Home and Abroad

2009-01-07

In the days before Barack Obama takes office, while a power vacuum persists in the US, the EU has a unique role to play in international initiatives to end the violence and the unfolding humanitarian crisis in Gaza. To succeed, it must pursue the policy launched by the French presidency, giving priority to a ceasefire and distancing itself from Israel’s disproportionate use of force.... read

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Hamas’s Ghost in Annapolis

Álvaro de Vasconcelos Series: Europe at Home and Abroad

2007-11-21

Next week’s Middle East conference in Annapolis can succeed only if it ushers in a Palestinian national unity government backed by a strong international military presence. But that is impossible as long as Hamas is excluded.... read

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The War on “Democratization”

Álvaro de Vasconcelos Series: Human Rights

2006-08-02

The wars in Lebanon and Gaza constitute a grave threat to democratic reform in the southern Mediterranean. These wars are inflicting heavy punishment on precisely those peoples who have held fully free and fair elections in the region, while eroding the legitimacy of Israel’s democracy.... read

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The Islamic Democratic Paradox

Álvaro de Vasconcelos Series: The World in Words

2006-02-03

The rage across the Arab world over the publication in Denmark (months ago) of cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed, together with the victory of Hamas in Palestine and the increasing radicalization of Iran’s politics, has made “political Islam” a fundamental question of international diplomacy. But a one-size-fits-all response won’t work. Indeed, we need to abandon the idea that there is a holistic or global Islamist movement.... read

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Fighting Terrorism Democratically

Álvaro de Vasconcelos Series: The World in Words

2005-08-09

Bombings in London and Turkey have brought to the fore the old ideas that authoritarian regimes are better equipped than democracies to combat terrorism, and that such attacks are the price we pay for liberty. For some, that is a price worth paying; for others, the costs seem too high.... read

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What Now? More Europe!

Álvaro de Vasconcelos Series: The World in Words

2005-06-10

The rejection of the European Union’s Constitution by French and Dutch voters forces us to think well beyond that treaty. That much is clear from the current debate on the Community budget. The naysayers’ victories show that sovereignty-based arguments that oppose any kind of European political union are on the march. Euroskeptics, it seems, are gaining ground everywhere, and a kind of xenophobia is on the rise.... read

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Kerry vs. Bush: Will Reason Prevail?

Álvaro de Vasconcelos Series: The World in Words

2004-10-28

With over 1,000 US deaths in Iraq, and the huge pressures that the occupation of that benighted country has put on American troops around the world, it is clear that - for the first time in decades - foreign policy issues may determine the outcome of a US presidential election. Ordinary Americans are asking themselves the same questions that people around the world are asking: how should America's global supremacy be used? What price must be paid for that supremacy to be maintained? What limits on the use of US military power are acceptable or necessary? ... read

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Terror Or Reform In The Greater Middle East

Álvaro de Vasconcelos Series: The World in Words

2004-03-22

Last week's brutal bombing in Madrid is part of a wave of terror that has made victims of Christians as well as Muslims. Everywhere debate is focused on the best way to combat this form of terrorism and on the importance, in this context, of the Greater Middle East initiative that the United States wants the G8 and NATO to approve in June.... read

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