Atlantic Council blogs

Time to Lead in the Middle East

By Hugh De Santis

Perhaps it is the fear of Donald Rumsfeld’s “unknown unknowns” that explains why President Barack Obama has failed to take a more active role in preventing Muammar Gaddafi’s slaughter of his own people.

Specter of Rebel Rout Helps Shift U.S. Policy on Libya

By Mark Landler and Dan Bilefsky, the New York Times

From Mark Landler and Dan Bilefsky, the New York Times:  The prospect of a deadly siege of the rebel stronghold in Benghazi, Libya, has produced a striking shift in tone from the Obama administration

For Want of a Strategy

By Harlan Ullman

According to Washington rules, criticizing the foreign policy or strategy of any administration need not be fair or balanced. Strategy can always be attacked for being wrong regardless of the merit of the claim. Or, perhaps easier, White Houses can be accused of having no strategy at all. But, both criticisms can fit. George W. […]

Lithuania’s “Steel Magnolia” defends maverick approach to foreign policy

By the AP

From the AP:  [Lithuania’s] President Dalia Grybauskaite has goaded the United States — unsuccessfully — to share information on two CIA prisons she says were set up in Lithuania, openly disagreed with the U.S. on missile defence and in perhaps the most shocking move, snubbed U.S. President Barack Obama at a dinner in Prague last […]

Denmark preparing F-16s for potential NATO no-fly zone

By the Copenhagen Post

From the Copenhagen Post:  Lene Espersen, the foreign minister, told parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday that the Air Force is preparing four F-16 fighter jets [and 90 crew] to take part in an internationally-backed no-fly zone over Libya, should Nato high command decide to act.

Libya a reminder that Europe matters

By Clayton M. McCleskey, the Dallas Morning News

From Clayton M. McCleskey, the Dallas Morning News:   [T]he on-going crisis in Libya and the unrest across the region are reminders that the U.S. cannot solve every problem on its own.

Would a Kosovo-level intervention succeed in Libya?

By Max Boot, the Wall Street Journal

Russia, France struggle over Mistral contract

By RIA Novosti

From RIA Novosti:  A Russian-French contract on the construction of Mistral class helicopter carriers for the Russian Navy is unlikely to be signed in the near future, a Russian deputy defense minister said.

Perfect Global Storm

By Arnaud de Borchgrave

It appeared to be the first global storm since World War II, a commingling of unrelated disasters. For Japan, it was 9/11-plus, the worst disaster since U.S. atomic bombs leveled Hiroshima and Nagasaki 65 years ago and sealed the end of the second world war in the 20th century. More than 10,000 Japanese drowned as […]