After Syria’s government agreed to a ceasefire deal on the 22nd of February 2016 which seems to hold until now, questions are raised on how the country should proceed if it wants to become a unified country once again. A strengthened inclusive Syrian state not only provides military steadfastness against the Islamic State but can additionally improve the political structure and tackle the social and economic deficiencies in the Middle East region - writes Alexander Grims, CIR's intern, in his analysis "Syria: federalism as the way forward?".

Exactly two years ago, on May 2nd 2014, the Chinese authorities ordered drilling works on the oil platform in the South China Sea. The South China Sea is one of the most contentious places on the map of the world. The two conflicts – one between China and Vietnam for the Paracels Islands and the conflict between China, Taiwan and four ASEAN countries (Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines, and Brunei) - for the Spratly Archipelago, are partly connected to the rivalry for natural resources and military domination. However, the control of one of the most important trade routes on the globe is at stake. The conflict involves also other international actors such as the United States, Japan, the G7 countries, as well as India and Australia.

Governing the Indian Union – “an explosive combination” of different States, language, religion and culture – requires unusual political skills. In “the world’s biggest democracy” the scale of tensions and conflicts of interest is proportional to the size and population of this complicated country. It can be seen in the example of the eight (seven till recently) North Eastern States, for decades shaken by all kinds of turmoil. The prevalence of peace, development agenda, as well as finding a way to unleash the human potential constitute three essential challenges of the region. - writes Małgorzata Bonikowska, Ph.D., President of CIR, in the analysis entitled India’s North East CASE STUDY.

Today's world economy is not really a global economy. It has coalesced around three well-integrated regional economies: East Asia, Western Europe, and North America. Countries like Korea, Poland, and Mexico have relatively large populations and high levels of GDP per capita but are nonetheless much smaller than the dominant core countries in their economic zones. They can merge into the cores, but to do so they must match core economies in fixed infrastructure and domestic consumption - writes Salvatore Babones, CIR's associate, in his comment "National Upgrading in a Regional World".

On 6 April 2016, in a referendum held in the Netherlands on the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement, 61,1% votes were against and 38,1% - in favour. More than 10 years earlier, the Netherlands had voted in a similar way against the EU constitutional treaty, together with France. Although the referendum is non-binding and turnout was low with 32,2%, it will have political implications for both the EU and Ukraine. It is also a bad news for the European future - writes Robert Steenland, CIR's intern, in his analysis "The Ukraine-EU Association Agreement after the Dutch referendum".

Last week’s Zaventem airport and Maelbeek metro station blasts in Brussels once more demonstrated how insecure Europe is today. 35 people died, over 300 were injured. Luckily, one of the bombs did not explode, otherwise the balance would have been much worse. The Islamic State (called ISIS or IS) took responsibility for these suicide attacks performed by two brothers el-Bakraoui, around 30 years old, both Muslims - writes Iranian scholar Mahan Charmshir (University of Warsaw) in CIR's comment "The Islamic State and the Caliphate. Europe in danger".

Recent years have proven that Mexico has a stable and growing economy and is becoming increasingly open to international trade and FDI from places other than NAFTA. A closer relation with Poland is both desired and viable but issues such as an ocean-wide distance, a language barrier and the individual dynamics of both markets supplement the list of obstacles that complicate the great potential of a solid partnership - writes Ernesto Malda Arozarena, charge d'affaires at the Mexico Embassy in Poland, in CIR's analysis "Mexico and Poland: a promising partnership".