WPR Blog Archive

I didn’t see a whole lot new, other than the name of NATO’s secretary general, in this Steven Erlanger interview with Anders Fogh Rasmussen. Afghanistan and Russia are still the alliance’s top priorities, Europe still needs to do more for the former, and the alliance’s rhetoric still doesn’t quite match up to the status quo on the latter. This did catch my eye, though, in response to a question about France’s reintegration of the alliance’s military command: “The French decision has removed a lot of suspicion internally”within NATO, he said. “It opens big and interesting perspectives fortrans-Atlantic relations and the […]

Last week, Iceland formally applied to join the European Union. Forty-eight hours later, the 27 EU member states welcomed Reykjavik’s overtures and instructed the European Commission in Brussels to begin a preliminary examination. Such prompt reaction — the Brussels equivalent of the speed of light — has caused dismay among other applicants who are engaged in lengthy talks for membership. In the past, Icelanders have not been enthusiastic about joining the European Union, largely because it would mean opening its fishing areas to other fleets — and fishing is the island’s main industry. So this sudden application has seemed to […]