Category: Blogs

Germany aims to begin Afghan handover in 2011

By Reuters

From Reuters:  Germany aims to hand over responsibility for security to Afghan forces in at least one of the country’s northern provinces next year, Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said on Friday.

NATO Strategic Concept Drivers

By Harlan Ullman

Since its creation in 1949, NATO has been at one crucial crossroads or another in which the future of the alliance seemed at stake. Today, as NATO is working on a new Strategic Concept to replace the current one approved eleven years ago in 1999, the alliance must come to grips with the challenges and […]

Do the Rest Need the West?

By Nikolas Gvosdev

Three years ago, Naazneen Barma, Ely Ratner and Steven Weber sounded a warning: the rest of the world was not necessarily looking to integrate into a Euro-Atlantic hub. They noted: "The landscape of globalization now looks like this: While connectivity for the globe as a whole has increased in the last twenty years, it is […]

Obama welcomes EU renewal of terrorist finance tracking agreement

By Barack Obama, the White House

From Barack Obama, the White House:  The United States welcomes today’s decision by the European Parliament to join the Council and Commission of the European Union in approving a revised agreement between the United States and the European Union on the processing and transfer of financial messaging data for the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program (TFTP).

Russia sends warship to international naval drills in North Atlantic

By RIA Novosti

From RIA Novosti:  The Severomorsk guided-missile destroyer from Russia’s Northern Fleet set sail Friday for British shores to team up with NATO warships in an international naval exercise in the North Atlantic, a fleet spokesman said. The Russian Navy earlier said the Frukus 2010 exercise will be held on July 22-25. The annual exercises, which […]

The Special Relationship in Peril

By Con Coughlin, the Wall Street Journal

From Con Coughlin, the Wall Street Journal:  The radical reappraisal of British foreign policy undertaken by Prime Minister David Cameron‘s new coalition government has raised serious questions about the future of Britain’s historic alliance with Washington..

EU takes ‘historic’ step on new diplomatic service

By Andrew Rettman, the EUobserver

From Andrew Rettman, the EUobserver:  Foreign relations chief Catherine Ashton will turn her attention to choosing the top officials and the main building for the European External Action Service (EEAS) after the EU Parliament approved the legal blueprint for the new body.

Former Foreign Minister: ‘Germany has found its place as Europe’s number one’

By Charlemagne, the Economist

From Charlemagne, the Economist:  Insults are being lobbed back and forth across the Rhine. The French cannot stop themselves from provoking the Germans.

Identities revealed in the largest spy swap since the Cold War

By Peter Baker, Ellen Barry and Benjamin Weiser, the New York Times

Mattis Next CENTCOM Chief

By James Joyner

Marine General James Mattis, co-winner of the Atlantic Council’s 2010 Distinguished Military Leadership Award, has been nominated by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to take over Central Command.