📌 Democracy doesn’t happen on its own — it needs resilience, trust, and collective action. ⭐ A big thank you to all speakers, partners and participants who joined EPD’s Annual Conference 2026 and helped unpack one central question: how do we build democracies ready for the challenges ahead?

🔥 With over 10,000 views, @vanghel.bsky.social's introduction to the Special Issue "Wartime Europe: EU Integration, Reform and Enlargement", "Why the EU is a geopolitical power", is JEPP's most-read article in 2025.

Register now for the APSA @interpretivemm.bsky.social "Studying Cool Stuff Seriously" short course I'm chairing Wednesday Sept 2. Speakers include Micah English, Tania Islas Weinstein, Alexis Lerner, Samantha Majic, Jelena Subotic, Michelle Weitzel, Colleen Wood connect.apsanet.org/apsa2026/pre...

Pre-Conference Short Courses

connect.apsanet.org

Well, this was fun. Many thanks to @aseees.bsky.social for asking the questions and for the opportunity of a short trip down academic (and not only) memory lane. aseees.org/news/veronic...

Veronica Anghel | Association for Slavic, East European, & Eurasian Studies

Veronica Anghel is an Assistant Professor at the Robert Schuman Center for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute and a Visiting Professor at the College of Europe.  Website When […]

aseees.org

💫 𝐋𝐚𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐡 𝐃𝐚𝐲. We need to stop calling the EU a club. Everything else will follow. ⤵️ 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐎𝐩𝐞𝐧 𝐀𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 🔗 bit.ly/4hD90rh

"since America’s problems with Iran are inherently political, military objectives cannot be proper war aims. And proper war aims are what’s missing: a desired end state that can be served by a ledger of destruction but must be more than the ledger itself.” @ryanevans.bsky.social

Kori Schake@kschake.bsky.social · 4mo ago

"one might be forgiven for concluding that America’s war against Iran has gone pretty well. That would be a mistake. And it is a mistake with a time-honored but deleterious tradition: that of mistaking tactical success for victory and of operational excellence for a strategy.” @ryanevans.bsky.social

Autocrats: We are untouchable. Hungarians:

Good piece here by @vanghel.bsky.social on how the technocratic integration of Ukraine continues despite EU wavering, Trump betrayal and Putin invasion. encompass-europe.com/comment/ukra... @padamson.bsky.social

Ukraine’s integration into the EU is already advancing – even without membership first

On 5 March, EU ambassadors rejected a proposal from the European Commission that would have allowed Ukraine to formally join the European Union before completing the reforms required for…

encompass-europe.com

The debates on EU enlargement we track today already existed in the 1980s-90s. Integrating Ukraine is only different in intensity and urgency. 👇 My contribution to a series on the role of the European Parliament. W/ thanks to the @eui-euarchives.bsky.social www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en...

"Hegseth has created a command climate in which subordinates might fear defending their educational programs. The dynamic reminds me of the tightening of the rules of engagement in Afghanistan during the Obama administration"

The Lecture I Couldn’t Give

Now more than ever, our armed forces need to understand the history of civil-military relations.

theatlantic.com

Kramatorsk is a city that today is closely associated with the railway. Conductor Olha runs the Kherson-Kramatorsk train across the entire country and every day sees how some people leave the city while others return. For her, the train is a second home, and the passengers are her temporary family.

encompass-europe.com/comment/ukra... @vanghel.bsky.social

Ukraine’s integration into the EU is already advancing – even without membership first

On 5 March, EU ambassadors rejected a proposal from the European Commission that would have allowed Ukraine to formally join the European Union before completing the reforms required for…

encompass-europe.com

‘How will Europe look like in 2057?’ A creative line for an interview by @artefr.bsky.social at the @eui-eu.bsky.social The global order may settle anywhere between a Cold Peace and Apocalypse Now. Europe will only thrive if it acts as a unified great power for the first time in its history.

Swim! Definitely swim! Looking forward to being back in Oxford this Tuesday. Please join us in conversation w/ @dimitarbechev.bsky.social & @Richard Youngs @St Antony's College or just come say hi.

💥 What are Europe’s top security threats in 2026? @vanghel.bsky.social & @gspataf95.bsky.social analyse the findings of the Global Risks to the EU survey & what they reveal about Europe’s security environment. Read 🔗 ow.ly/Xqvt50Y002s

📚 @vanghel.bsky.social expands on the survey results: "We see a spike across the EU in citizens' commitment to higher defence spending, a unified EU army, support for enlargement and for Ukraine - particularly since Trump took office."

Top threat to the EU in 2026: hybrid attacks on critical infrastructure. Other high-impact risks include a US withdrawal from security guarantees - seen by experts as having an impact comparable to a Russian nuclear strike. @vanghel.bsky.social presents the survey’s findings.

📊 @vanghel.bsky.social presents the results of the survey: "2026 introduces a very dangerous security environment for the EU. Nothing short of a strategy of total defence is necessary to respond to the converging threats we are facing."

📅 2025 was an exciting year: year 1 A.J., the first year of a new era. The newly formed editorial team had no choice but to jump in at the deep end. Another record year of submissions left no time to linger. When I think about this past year with JEPP, two things come to mind: humility and gratitude

✨ Happy holidays from our JEPP team!

JEPP Journal@jeppjournal.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Continuing our pre-holidays series, @vanghel.bsky.social is hibernating with her partner in Oxford, firmly insisting that doomscrolling the news and rewiewing debut books for the 2026 Council for European Studies Award is absolutely not work and that she is, in fact, on a proper Christmas break 🎄

The Trump administration has designed “a security strategy for the age of social media, pegged to a never-ending, fluid, ever-adjustable present tense,” writes Michael Kimmage.

Trump’s Power Paradox

What kind of world order does his national security strategy seek?

foreignaffairs.com

🧭 #EUEnlargementDilemmas No.35 🗣️ The #RussiaUkraineWar forced the EU to speak the language of power, but didn’t turn the #EU into a state. ↔️ @vanghel.bsky.social argues that enlargement is the EU’s prime relational technology, binding security to markets, institutions + publics. 👉 bit.ly/49T8ovT

🧭 Why enlargement is EU geopolitics

The Russia-Ukraine war forced the EU to speak the language of power, but it didn’t turn the EU into a state. Veronica Anghel argues that EU geopolitics looks different: dense ties, not just hard power...

bit.ly

❔| #TTP: Should Europe Negotiate with Russia? By negotiating with the Kremlin, the Trump administration has broken the taboo on diplomacy with Russia. With Ukrainian and European security at stake, is it time to talk to Moscow? 7️⃣ experts give their takes ⤵️ carnegieendowment.org/europe/strat...

Taking the Pulse: Should Europe Negotiate with Russia?

By negotiating directly with the Kremlin, the Trump administration has broken the taboo on diplomatic contacts with Russia. With Ukrainian and European security at stake, is it time for Brussels to op...

carnegieendowment.org

⚔️ Special Issue on "Wartime Europe: EU Integration, Reform and Enlargement" edited by @vanghel.bsky.social 🌍 @vanghel.bsky.social: Why the EU is a geopolitical power: wartime enlargement, integration, and reform 🔗 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Love it! EU Enlargement by any other name.

Ursula von der Leyen@vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu · 8mo ago

Welcome to SAFE, Canada! When like-minded partners join forces on security and defence in a turbulent world, our countries grow stronger, our industries benefit and our citizens are safer. Our Joint Statement ↓ link.europa.eu/QCDtpr

📢 New issue, including the Special Issue on "Wartime Europe: EU Integration, Reform and Enlargement" edited by @vanghel.bsky.social, a debate on EU & NATO enlargement after 2022 and JEPP news 👇 🔗 www.tandfonline.com/toc/rjpp20/3...

📚 #EUIdeas: Asst. Prof. @vanghel.bsky.social & @eui-schuman.bsky.social Dir. @erik-jones.bsky.social explain why the EU tends to enlarge & reform at the same time. 🔗 https://loom.ly/RvMXrq0

“If Europe wants to help shape Russia, it must start now,” argue @vanghel.bsky.social and @radchenko.bsky.social. “Otherwise, Russian drones over Poland and Romania may be a harbinger of a far more troubling future to come.”

Europe’s Delayed Reckoning With Russia

A plan to beat the Kremlin on its own terms.

foreignaffairs.com

Many thanks to @carolinedegruyter.bsky.social for her excellent review of our short book Read Open Access 🔗 bit.ly/4hD90rh

encompass-europe.com/comment/euro... @erik-jones.bsky.social @eui-eu.bsky.social @vanghel.bsky.social

Europe: mortal, yet resilient

The European Union can fail, but it doesn’t have to.  That is the message that you read across Emmanual Macron’s 2024 Sorbonne speech, in Mario Draghi’s 2024 report on…

encompass-europe.com