Lesson from Samarkand: “Union” or Multi-Vector Balancing in the Turkic World?

Samarkand has become the clearest illustration that the trajectory of Turkic cooperation is shaped less by cultural affinity than by the cost structure of external partnerships. On 4 April 2025, the European Union (hereinafter: EU) and the five Central Asian republics elevated relations to a strategic partnership and launched a 12€ billion Global Gateway investment...

Czechia’s Populist Return: Babiš, Coalition Hardliners and the European Union Friction Map

In December 2025, Czech politics entered a new phase of populist incumbency as President Petr Pavel appointed Andrej Babiš Prime Minister, returning the right-wing party ANO to power after four years in opposition. The October election outcome matters less as a routine alternation than as a governing reconfiguration: Babiš’ parliamentary arithmetic ties cabinet survival to...

Deterrence on Trial: Russia’s Drone Incursion into Poland and the Low-End Stress Test for NATO

Since late summer, Russia’s long-range strike campaign against Ukraine, built around cruise missiles and Shahed-type drones, has pushed the risks of cross-border spillover to the front of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (hereinafter: NATO) politics. That abstraction turned concrete on the night of 9-10 September 2025, when 19 suspected Russian drones crossed into Polish airspace during...

Cohabitation without Compromise: Poland’s Veto Wave and the Price of Policy

Poland entered a genuine cohabitation in the summer of 2025. Karol Nawrocki, a conservative historian and former director of the Institute of National Remembrance (hereinafter: the IPN) backed by Law and Justice (hereinafter: the PiS), won the 1 June presidential run-off by a margin of 50,89% to 49,11% against Rafał Trzaskowski, the Mayor of Warsaw...

Czechia’s 2025 Election Meets a Nuclear Test: The KHNP Tender

Czechia heads to the polls on 3-4 October 2025, with an election framed as a choice between continuity under Prime Minister Petr Fiala’s centre-right coalition and a return to government by Andrej Babiš’s Action of Dissatisfied Citizens (hereinafter: the ANO). Recent polling puts ANO ahead, sharpening the campaign’s focus on energy prices, industrial policy and...

When Strategy Overrides Solidarity: The Quiet Retreat on Northern Cyprus

In late 2024, a quiet but symbolically charged diplomatic shift appeared imminent: the Organisation of Turkic States (hereinafter: the OTS), a bloc increasingly aligned around cultural kinship and strategic coordination, was expected to extend formal or semi-formal recognition to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (hereinafter: the TRNC). The move would have marked a historic...