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Originally published on CEPS.eu.  

May was not a bad month for democracy. After India’s 900 million eligible voters were invited to cast their ballot, up to 430 million across 28 EU member states had a chance to go the polls in the world’s second biggest democratic elections: those for the European Parliament.

It is important that the Brisbane G20 Summit on Nov. 15–16 is a success. In an increasingly integrated global economy, effective forums for economic cooperation are needed.

Two simultaneous conflicts in Europe and the Middle East have brought the international order into flux. Russia’s annexation of Crimea and destabilization of eastern Ukraine have deeply undermined European security. Meanwhile, the self-declared Islamic State’s proclamation of a caliphate in western Iraq and eastern Syria has unsettled the Middle East. While it may be tempting for foreign policymakers to consider "Syraq" and "Rukraine" as unrelated crises, the tensions in Eastern Europe have strong implications for the situation in the Middle East, and vice versa.

Cybersecurity is now a leading concern for major economies. Reports indicate that hackers can target the U.S. Department of Justice or Iranian nuclear facilities just as easily as they can mine credit card data. Threats have risen as the Internet has become a critical infrastructure for the global economy, with thousands of operations migrating onto it. For example, the innocuous practice of bring-your-own-device to work presents mounting dangers due to malware attacks--software intended to corrupt computers.

The Arctic has become a subject of greater strategic interest over the past few years, due in part to the overwhelming evidence of climate change and growing access to the region's natural resources. Scientists have long suspected that warming would be more pronounced closer to the poles, but until recently, the extent of this was unclear. According to the U.S.

The fourth and almost certainly final Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) will take place from March 31 to April 1, 2016 in Washington, DC. Washington hosted the first such meeting of heads of states and government in 2010, followed by summits in Seoul (2012) and the Hague (2014). Though the NSS process is about to end, the struggle to prevent nuclear terrorism is not, and at present there is no vehicle with which to carry these efforts forward in a concerted manner. The NSS process has led to significant achievements in securing nuclear materials worldwide, but much more remains to be done.

Editors note: This global perspectives roundup is a new feature of the Council of Councils initiative, gathering opinions from global experts on major international developments. In this edition, Council of Councils members offer their perspectives on the upcoming G20 leaders summit, which will be held in Hamburg, Germany, on July 7–8.  

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