German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s short visit to India recently attaches a special symbolism to the growing relationship between New Delhi and Berlin because Indo-German relations are currently at their strongest. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union and German reunification, and the steady integration of post-liberalisation India with the global political economy, the two have found common ground from where to act in tandem to develop common policies and initiatives - writes Amrita Banerjee in CIR's comment "Indo-German ties. Exploring complementarities".

In Chinese numerology eight is considered as an extremely lucky number. According to this belief it should be natural to be optimistic about everything connected with the Association of Southeast Nations (ASEAN), formed on 8/8/67. 2015 brings its 48th year of work devoted, as it has been stated many times officially, to sustainable development and stability of the region. However last few years have been really tough for the organisation and its core values seem to change within time - writes Rafał Tomański in CIR's comment "How to destroy community or is ASEAN still relevant?"

Using the military as a catalyst for an integral approach to the performance of the treaty tasks geared at conflict prevention, crisis management and peacebuilding, focusing on a contribution to territorial defence complementary to NATO and an ability to conduct intervention operations beyond the EU's borders - these recommendations were included in the report "More Union in European defence", presented by the Centre for European Policy Studies and Friedrich Ebert Foundation in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic in Prague. CIR's experts participated in the event.