New Atlanticist

Merkel’s Moment

By Margarita Mathiopoulos

Leadership of the European Union from the beginning has fallen on Germany and France — Konrad Adenauer and Charles de Gaulle, Giscard d’Estaing and Helmut Schmidt, Helmut Kohl and François Mitterrand. Now it is Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy, and at their last meeting they signaled that they are aware of the depth of the […]

When the Issue Was Nuclear, at Least It Was Clear

By David Sarasohn

In 1961, it wasn’t hard to understand why an American president was obsessed with Berlin. As Frederick Kempe explains in his new book, “Berlin 1961: Kennedy, Khrushchev and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth,” the divided city was where the superpowers confronted each other, where the nuclear trigger might get pulled — and where, Kempe […]

Why No Cyber 9/11s Yet?

By Jason Healey

Fears of a catastrophic cyber attack against national infrastructure go back well before 2001, but the attacks of a decade ago have given this possibility a new name: a “cyber 9/11.” The feeling persists that a large-scale cyber attack is just around the corner. Yet, despite these fears, there have been no such catastrophic attacks.  […]

The Rebirth of President Putin

By Don Snow

Vladimir Putin announced on Sunday that he will trade places with current president Dmitry Medvedev next year, running for the presidency while Medvedev settles for the number two spot of prime minister. Under revisions to the Russian constitution, the presidency has been lengthened from a four-year to a six-year term, and presidents can run for […]

Creeping Annexation

By Arnaud de Borchgrave

In the perennial Palestinian-Israeli crisis, Barack Obama decided to enhance his 2012 re-election chances by giving his pro-Israel credentials a much-needed boost. By the same token Obama scuttled his chances of improving America’s image in the Arab world. The Palestinians are no nearer to achieving statehood and U.N. membership. And the land for the creation […]

Redrawing Europe’s Energy Map: Poland’s Offer

The Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom enjoys unwavering control of gas exports to Europe with little current viable competition. The European Union, overall, receives 25 percent of its natural gas supply via pipelines from Russia, with some (mostly Eastern European) consumers almost completely dependent on the large supplier. These consumers have been actively in pursuit […]

Whither the African Union?

By Peter Pham

With their attention largely focused in recent months on the unprecedented challenges faced by some of the pillars of the transatlantic community—NATO during and after the intervention in Libya, the European Union as it struggles to contain the sovereign debt crisis, and the United States where partisan wrangling over the budget deficits again threatens to […]

The SAS War Diaries: Who Thinks Wins

By Julian Lindley-French

They literally leapt to prominence in May 1980 when Britain’s elite Special Air Service (SAS) stormed Iran’s hijacked London embassy. I was watching snooker on the BBC at the time as coverage was interrupted to cover the assault live. It was the dawn of the 24/7 media age in which we live today. I can […]

Another Swing, Another Missed Opportunity for Leadership

By Alexei Monsarrat

Does anyone read G20 communiqué’s anymore?  In case you missed it, the G20 finance ministers yesterday released a statement saying they are “committed to a strong and coordinated international response to address the renewed challenges facing the global economy.”