Category: Blogs

China’s Seat At The Big Table

By James Joyner

A great line was going around Twitter last night:  "The 2009 Nobel Peace Prize winner holds a State Dinner for a man who has the 2010 winner under House Arrest." And, indeed, there was some amusing irony in President Obama, the 2009 winner, hosting Chinese President Hu Jintao for a massive state dinner.  Among his […]

Rasmussen: European missile defense needs independent Russian and NATO systems

By RIA Novosti

From RIA Novosti:  NATO’s vision for European missile defense is two independent, but coordinated systems, the alliance’s secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said on Wednesday.

Nordic Alliance: Mini-NATO or Polar Fog?

By Andrew Rettman, the EUobserver

From Andrew Rettman, the EUobserver:  Proposals for the five Nordic countries to create a mini-Nato alliance are "dreams in Polar fog" but may be useful for "keeping an eye on Polar bears and Russians", according to the former US ambassador to Norway, Benson Whitney.

Obama Administration’s Cyber Report Card

By the National Security Cyberspace Institute

From the National Security Cyberspace Institute:  We’ve awarded decidedly mixed grades to President Obama at the halfway point of his term.

America Has No Strategy

By Harlan Ullman

Despite America’s penchant for lauding its “exceptionalism,” regarding “strategic thinking,” this exceptionalism applies to getting that thinking right. Too often, we get it wrong or allow it to be absent without leave. Over the past century, our record has been poor. We won World War I yet, in the aftermath, we helped sow the seeds […]

Executive Suspended for Criticizing E.U. Satellite

By Kevin J. O'Brien, the New York Times

From Kevin J. O’Brien, the New York Times:  The chief executive of the largest satellite company in Germany was suspended on Tuesday for telling American diplomats that the Galileo satellite project in Europe was redundant, cost-inefficient and designed to benefit French business interests, according to cables published by WikiLeaks.

Ukraine and Russia Negotiating “Gas for Fleet” Agreement

By RIA Novosti

From RIA Novosti:  The Russian and Ukrainian finance ministries will draw up a draft agreement within two months on the extension terms of the lease of the Sevastopol port to Russia, Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said on Tuesday. Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev signed an agreement to extend the […]

PM Erdogan: Turkey will not “wait at the EU’s door like a docile supplicant”

By Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Newsweek

US and Russia Disagree over Zones of Control for Missile Defense

By Walter Pincus, the Washington Post

From Walter Pincus, the Washington Post:  Before the November NATO-Russia Council meetings in Lisbon, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev asserted three principles for a shared NATO missile-defense agreement: Russia would be a full partner, there would be shared early-warning data (such as shared sensors), and there would be assigned zones of responsibility for protection.

Smarter Somali pirates thwarting navies, NATO admits

By Michael Richards, AFP