Europe Archive

I mentioned last week that Poland’s shift toward EU defense had become more pronounced since the U.S. shift on European-based missile defense. But Nicolas Gros-Verheyde’s (French-language) summary of the French-Polish joint declaration on security cooperation really underscores that point. Time will tell how all of this will play out in terms of concrete developments. But as Gros-Verheyde observes, the potential for a French-Polish engine driving further EU defense cooperation is clearly in place. The declaration covers bilateral security cooperation in terms of training and industrial partnership, but places it in the context of European security. While it makes a point […]

There’s no longer any question that Europe is feeling a growing sense of frustration with the Obama administration. But for the most part, thecritiques to date have been more on the level of personal rapport andform (how the missile defense decision was announced, for instance)rather than substance. Now, Olivier Debouzy, who Jean-Dominique Merchetdescribes as a “discreet but recognized specialist on strategicmatters,” offers both a structural and policy critique from a European perspective that’s worth noting. Debouzy begins by arguing that President Barack Obama’s foreign policyis incoherent, something he explains by both the absence in theadministration of a strategist on the […]

One year after his election as president, Barack Obama has reached out to America’s enemies and critics, improving the popular standing of the United States in many countries. Ironically, though, relations between Obama and the leaders of countries closely allied to the U.S. have turned rather frosty, particularly in Europe. If the first foreign policy chapter of the Obama presidency was marked by engagement with America’s foes, the next chapter may well require improving ties with its friends. Tension between Obama and friendly world leaders is particularly striking, because the “No Drama Obama” White House tries to avoid what it […]

– Among the agreements signed during Chinese President Hu Jintao’s visit to Malaysia was an MoU on banking regulation. This seems to be an increasing priority for Chinese regional policy. – Count World Bank President Robert Zoeller as the latest believer in the Yuan as an alternative reserve currency. – If China is looking to raise its profile in the Gulf, Qatar makes for a logical partner. – It looks like Japan and the U.S. have agreed to downgrade the Futenma base dispute, in advance of President Barack Obama’s imminent arrival in Tokyo. – China agrees to sell $1.4 billion […]

BRUSSELS, Belgium — With Czech approval of the Lisbon Treaty removing the last obstacle for the treaty’s ratification, a race in Brussels has begun between the European Commission and the European Council to secure influence over the new European External Action Service (EEAS). The new body is among the institutions introduced by the treaty, and reflects the European Union’s attempt to integrate its foreign policy departments. It will combine tasks currently undertaken by the Commission’s Directorate General of External Relations and the institutions of the Council Secretariat in charge of foreign policy. The integration of elements from the Commission and […]

The big winner from yesterday’s frosty meeting between U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu? Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. With the Palestinian peace track once again derailed, that leaves Syria as the only credible peace player in town. That’s the guiding logic behind a diplomatic fact-finding report just delivered to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, anyway. The advantage of an Israel-Syria deal preceding the Palestinian track being that Hamas would almost certainly be forced to adapt to the changed landscape in ways that would favor intra-Palestinian reconciliation and facilitate a subsequent Israeli-Palestinian deal. It’s in that context that […]

No sooner does Jack Lang, the newly appointed French envoy to North Korea, touch down in Pyongyang than all hell breaks loose. I had a feeling this would happen. Good thing President Barack Obama just decided to send his own presidential envoy, Stephen Bosworth, to North Korea to straighten things out. Here’s hoping Bosworth gets a chance to debrief with Richard Holbrooke and George Mitchell before he heads off. I’m sure those guys have useful tips on how this whole special envoy thing is done.

Hugh White argues that the first step to winning the Cold War was losing the Vietnam War. If so, it adds even more significance to the arrival yesterday in Da Nang, Vietnam, of Cmdr. H.B. Le as the commanding officer of the USS Lassen. Le left Vietnam in a fishing boat in 1975, at the age of five. Something to ponder for those who argue that losing isn’t an option. White’s piece, which offers five other thought-provoking observations, is the most insightful thing I’ve read so far on the fall of the Berlin Wall (admittedly not a lot, since I’ve […]

– Thought Chechnya was “pacified”? Think again. Violence has spiked since Russia officially ended its 10-year counterterror mission there in April. (The implications for Iraq seem ominous.) – It’s been a violent week for Chechnya’s North Caucasus neighbors, too, with attacks reported in Ingushetia, Dagestan and North Ossetia. – Japan continues its checkbook diplomacy, pledging $5.55 billion to the Mekong states: Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and, yes, Burma. Among the reasons for the aid given by Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama are China’s growing influence and America’s greater interest in the region. Interesting . . . Chinese influence, American interest. […]

Panelists discuss the extraordinary impact of the fall of the Berlin Wall the day it happened in 1989 on PBS’ NewsHour.

Saudi Arabia’s possible purchase of at least $2 billion of Russian military equipment has the potential to be the most significant Russian arms deal in the Middle East since the Soviet Union transferred SA-2s to Nasser’s Egypt. By all indications, it seems that the two countries have reached an agreement for the arms transfer, after a two-year negotiation period. The deal may be part of a larger process that leads to a significant realignment in the external relations of both parties. The arms transfer agreement, which covers a broad spectrum of weapons, is guided by the agreement on cooperation in […]

WorldFocus’ Daljit Dhaliwal speaks with Gideon Litchfield, deputy editor of The Economist online in New York, about the British sentiment toward the war in Afghanistan. Litchfield says that some experts are espousing a new strategy for fighting terrorism — tighten up control on the homefront, not in Afghanistan.

“We need partners. We need allies — and our natural ally is Europe,” former Ambassador Nicholas Burns said to the audience at a European Institute at Columbia University event. During his speech, part of the Donald and Vera Blinken lecture series, Burns addressed Europe’s critics.”It’s so fashionable to say that Europe is tired,” he said. And in some respects, he conceded, Europe is tired. Burns, a professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, said that Europe has not been prepared to lead in the 21st century due to a lack of consistent centralized leadership. “Europe needs to begin to speak […]

One of the less-noticed, second-order effects of the Obama administration’s decision to scrap Eastern European-based missile defense is the way in which it has increasingly isolated Great Britain in terms of the European defense discussion. The “Russia wedge” equation traditionally pitted New Europe and Britain’s Atlanticism against Old Europe’s EU defense. But Poland had already started hedging its bets with greater support of EU defense before the missile defense decision. In its aftermath, that shift has become even more pronounced. That leaves Great Britain on the outside looking in, with the major winner for now being France. It also makes […]

An Italian judge has convicted 23 Central Intelligence Agency officers of participating in the kidnapping and rendition of an Egyptian cleric in Milan in 2003. The trial marked the first time the controversial anti-terrorism tool, known as extraordinary rendition, was challenged anywhere in the world. “The message of this important ruling — to nations, governments, institutions, secret services, etc. — is that we cannot use illegal instruments in our effort against terrorism. Our democracies, otherwise, would betray their principles,” the lead prosecutor, Armando Spataro, told the Los Angeles Times. All of the Americans were tried in absentia, and it is […]

More bad news for the A400M: South Africa just cancelled its order of eight of them. That’s also bad news for African peacekeeping missions, though, of which there aren’t any shortage these days. In the meantime, South Africa upgraded its fleet of 1963-vintage C130Bs. (Nothing a little duct tape can’t fix, I imagine.) What if one day someone threw a war and nobody could get to it?

Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke to a joint meeting of Congress yesterday, making her the first leader of unified Germany to do so. Merkel began her speech by commemorating the fall of the Berlin Wall and remembering her own childhood in a divided Germany.