On June 5, Stephan De Spiegeleire will give a presentation at the Carnegie Moscow Center on “(Re-)Designing Western Policy towards Russia”. Stephan will talk about the challenges Russia’s new assertiveness pose for Western Europe.
Increased great power brinkmanship (as displayed by Russia over the Ukraine crisis and by China in the South China Sea) presents a painful policy dilemma for a Europe that has great difficulties in comprehending and responding to such behavior.
Stephan will argue that there is a growing recognition in Europe that the current European policy toolkit has proved itself to be ineffective. Europe confronts a choice between a return to 19th century forms of statecraft or a new, hopefully more effective capability and policy options portfolio. He will present some initial findings from an HCSS study that is trying to identify such ‘new’ policy options for dealing with a ‘new’ Russia and is then assessing those options based on a number of different policy criteria. He is eager for input on both the list of options and of criteria. Dmitri Trenin will moderate. The working language will be English. The discussion will take place in the large conference room of the Carnegie Moscow Center, 16/2 Tverskaya St., Business Center, 7th floor.