It has been always quite clear that destroying Syrian chemical weapons would have been a difficult mission, but the current situation it's more complicated than expected. The first great problem burst out in  December when OPCW was looking for a way to destroy Assad's chemical armoury and no State nor private organization volunteered. Because of that and due to a short amount of available time, OPCW board was forced to solve the “crisis” going with a earlier set aside-option : destroying the chemical material in international waters in more than one step. The second huge problem revealed itself at the end of 2013 and it messed up OPCW schedule: according to their plan, the most dangerous part of Syrian chemical armoury should have been removed from Syrian territory by 31 December but they failed  because of bad weather condition and because of the never-ending clashes between Assad's troops and the rebel groups within the ongoing civil war. Now everything it's on move again but the premises aren't really bright.

French troops and African Union peacekeepers are currently failing in stemming violence episodes in Central African Republic (CAR), and that’s why, during 19-20 December European Council, Paris called the European Union to intervene, by force of arms and/or by budgetary support. The core of the French proposal is the creation of a multinational military force deployable within the African continent at the first signs of a crisis. Relying on such a political and military tool, if rightly planned, the EU will be able to skip the huge political and diplomatic procedure that usually foreruns a military operation. But being such a delicate matter, the whole debate has been postponed to the first 2014 European Council.  

A great humanitarian crisis is still erupting in Central African Republic. The whole Country has fallen into chaos and civilian population is the first victim of the ongoing clashes between the Christian and Muslim paramilitary militias. France has already intervened supporting an African Union peacekeeping mission but, at present, the 1600 French military units running Sangaris operation are far from reaching their goal: disarming the militias, bringing them to peace-talk and consequently restoring order and security.

Diplomatic tension between Russia and the Euro-Atlantic axis is increasing, and that is because of a certain number of short-range Iskander missiles (called SS-26 Stone in NATO code) have been deployed by Moscow in Kaliningrad (Russian enclave enclosed by Poland, Lithuania and the Baltic Sea) and along Estonian and Latvian borders.