Atlantic Council blogs

The Cruel Calendar

By Shuja Nawaz

South Asia is still struggling for some semblance of stability following last year’s turmoil. The next two years promise little respite as the effects of clashing political and economic calendars threaten to create further vortices of violence and political battles in the region.

If Socialist Wins France, European Union Will Be ‘Irrelevant’

By Arnaud de Borchgrave

Award-winning journalist Arnaud de Borchgrave tells Jim Meyers and John Bachman of Newsmax that French President Nicolas Sarkozy will “squeak through” his upcoming election and remain in office, but a Sarkozy loss would lead to a decline of the European Union that could render it “irrelevant.”

The ‘pivot’ to Asia versus Europe’s ‘Thucydidean nationalist passions’

By Victor Davis Hanson, the National Review

From Victor Davis Hanson, the National Review:  The administration has also quite publicly announced a shift in U.S. strategic attention to the Pacific, apparently on the premise of a rising China and a quiescent Europe and Mediterranean.

Russians protest plans for NATO site near Lenin’s birthplace

By Andrew E. Kramer, the New York Times

From Andrew E. Kramer, the New York Times:  Nationalist and leftist groups marched on Saturday in a central Russian city to protest a proposal by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to set up a transit hub for goods shipped to and from Afghanistan. NATO is in talks with Russia to establish the site for shipping […]

How Much Europe are the Dutch (and Others) Willing to Pay For

By Julian Lindley-French

Here in the Netherlands the government fell ostensibly over the need for further cuts in public spending to meet Eurozone debt limits. However, lurking in the Dutch political shadows is a much more existential question; how much I as a Dutch taxpayer should pay to keep Spain and the other indebted Eurozone countries afloat?

Top News: Netanyahu Calls Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula a “Wild West”

By Mara Revkin

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyau said that Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula has turned into a "kind of Wild West" exploited by Islamist militants with Iranian help to smuggle in weapons and stage attacks on Israel.

NATO Members Spar over Post-Withdrawal Financing for Afghanistan

By Spiegel

From Spiegel:  After the almost total withdrawal of ISAF troops at the end of 2014, according to the strategy, NATO members don’t want to leave the country entirely to its own fate.

Nuclear Weapon Reductions Must be Part of Strategic Analysis

By Henry Kissinger and Brent Scowcroft

A New START treaty reestablishing the process of nuclear arms control has recently taken effect. Combined with reductions in the U.S. defense budget, this will bring the number of nuclear weapons in the United States to the lowest overall level since the 1950s. The Obama administration is said to be considering negotiations for a new […]

Turkey blocking Israel’s participation in NATO summit

By Celil Sagir, Zaman

Reports cast doubt on European missile defense

By Desmond Butler, AP

From Desmond Butler, AP:  Major delays, cost overruns and critical technological problems are plaguing a missile defense system designed to protect the United States and Europe from an Iranian attack