The 17th of December 2014 can undoubtedly be described as a historic day. The United States of America and Cuba have put an end to their disagreement after more than 5 decades of confrontation. The exchange of prisoners marks the thaw in Cuban-American relations and the start of the end Read more
Spanish-Guinean “schizophrenia”
A few weeks ago, a characteristic incident in the always turbulent relations between Spain and Guinea took place. To any outside observer, what happened has no logical explanation. The President of the former Spanish colony in Africa travelled to our country, the sole foreign Chief of State present, to render Read more
From Kosovo to Crimea
Any diplomacy manual always recommends resorting to History and Geography as complementary sciences to extract a suitable diagnosis and thereby be capable of applying efficient policies to solve possible conflicts. However, it seems like nowadays everyone has turned deaf ears to this usual practice in the history of diplomacy as Read more
Goodbye, Madiba, Thank you for your courage
The international community is in mourning after the death of Nelson Mandela, a man of profound convictions who demolished the walls of apartheid and, no doubt about it, showed us the strength of peace and reconciliation. In his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom (1994), he comments on where he got Read more
Syria, the diplomatic option
As I stated in my last article on Syria, the key element to resolve the crisis was the use and exercise of diplomacy, and I upheld this in interviews with several media, in which I reasserted that the formula to lead the Syrian conflict to safe harbour is: diplomacy, diplomacy Read more
The Sahel, a Chronicle of Portended Instability
Just over three years ago, Spain and France signed a joint initiative that they took to the Council of General Affairs of the European Union to put forward a “European strategy for Sahel”. Back then, both countries were suffering, first-hand, the threats and the blackmail of a, as yet, budding Read more
Will a New Beijing Consensus Replace the Old Washington One?
CIDOB’s Conversations with Miguel Ángel Moratinos Now living in Doha, where he works as an adviser to the Qatar National Food Security Program and is responsible for the launching of the Global Dry Land Alliance, Miguel Ángel Moratinos observes global geopolitics and particularly the Mediterranean –his true passion– with the Read more