Atlantic Council blogs

What’s going on inside David Cameron’s foreign policy?

By Will Inboden, Foreign Policy

Shock and Awe Against Jihadists

By Harlan Ullman

August marks the 65th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Japan. On Aug. 6, 1945, a B-29 named “Enola Gay” dropped “Little Boy,” a nuclear device with the equivalent of 10-15 kilotons of TNT that destroyed Hiroshima. Three days later, after Japan’s War Cabinet voted to continue the war, another B-29 launched “Fat Man” on […]

Berlusconi Faces a No-Confidence Vote

By Elizabetta Povoledo, the New York Times

From Elizabetta Povoledo, the New York Times:  The government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will face a no-confidence motion Wednesday because of the investigation of a Justice Ministry official implicated in an influence-peddling scandal. The center-right government is expected to survive the vote even though it lost its absolute majority in the lower house last […]

Afghanistan Oversight Failures

By Arnaud de Borchgrave

The questions go back and forth between the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl W. Eikenberry, who was once the military  commander in Afghanistan; and Special Envoy for "AFPAK" Richard C. Holbrooke, usually airborne

NATO eyes move to new HQ after 50 years in temporary digs

By Slobodan Lekic, the CP

From Slobodan Lekic, the CP:  When President Charles de Gaulle kicked NATO out of France in 1966, the alliance built a temporary home in Brussels in just 29 weeks. Permanent digs should be finished just short of half a century later. The rabbit warren of prefab housing always looked very temporary but served NATO well […]

Why the U.S. can’t look to NATO or the EU to support its Russia strategy

By Stephen Szabo, Europe’s World

From Stephen Szabo, Europe’s World:  America’s foreign policy leaders, both within the U.S. government and elsewhere, are losing patience with Europe.

France won’t cut force in Afghanistan despite 500 million euro cost

By John Irish, Reuters

From John Irish, Reuters:  France will not withdraw from Afghanistan despite an annual cost of half a billion euros because the NATO mission there is preventing Afghanistan’s collapse, France’s defence minister said on Tuesday. Speaking in a radio interview, Herve Morin said his ministry would make about 3 billion euros ($3.92 billion) in savings up […]

Restructuring for Long-Term Threats

By Stephen Hadley and William Perry

For the past six months, we led a bipartisan panel of former national security and military leaders in reviewing the document laying out the Defense Department’s plans for the next 20 years. The Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) released this year was prepared by a Pentagon focused on responding to the threats America faces and winning […]

A Warm Westerly Wind Toward Georgia?

By David Smith

As if driven to Georgia by Zephyrus, ancient god of the westerly wind, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and European Union High Representative Catherine Ashton arrived here in the turn of two weeks.  Their visits and encouraging words indicate that a new westerly wind is blowing.