Category: Blogs

France sanctions general who spoke out on Afghanistan

By AFP

From AFP:   France will punish a general who criticised the US-led war effort in Afghanistan, Defence Minister Herve Morin said Wednesday, amid growing doubts about the NATO war strategy. General Vincent Desportes, director of France’s Joint Forces Defence College, which trains staff officers, last week told the daily Le Monde that the situation in Afghanistan […]

Poland Has a New President: What Does It Mean for the Transatlantic Relationship?

By Sally McNamara, Heritage Foundation

Significance of U.S. Treasury’s Iran Sanctions

By Jonathan Schanzer

The U.S. Treasury Department recently announced targeted financial sanctions on a long list of Iranian companies, people, and entities. Some of the designations specifically target Iran’s nuclear and missile programs, while others target its energy sector.  Still others target the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a brutal group of regime loyalists who crush democratic […]

Ukraine, NATO to hold Sea Breeze military drills in July

By RIA Novosti

America’s Uncertain Trumpet

By Arnaud de Borchgrave

No better proof of a dysfunctional — and broke — system of government than the U.S. Congress passing additional funding for the Afghan war — $300 billion thus far — while simultaneously denying the unemployed an extension of benefits — and then taking a 10-day Independence Day vacation. With the jobless hovering just less than […]

Why Is Turkey Funding Muslim Preachers in Germany?

By Paul Hockenos, Foreign Policy

From Paul Hockenos, Foreign Policy:  For decades, no one in Germany took much notice of the imported Islamic holy men in their midst. Turkey’s Presidency of Religious Affairs sent imams inconspicuously, on four-year postings, to minister to the spiritual needs of West Germany’s Turkish migrant workers and their families — while keeping them in line […]

NATO Wants To Increase Cooperation With South Korea, Non-Members

By Yonhap News Agency

From Yonhap News Agency:  The world’s biggest military alliance, NATO, is looking to increase cooperation with South Korea and other partners beyond Europe and North America to meet global challenges such as proliferation and piracy, a senior NATO official said Tuesday. "Our security interests and security interests of countries like Korea coincide today more than […]

Poland Elections Victory for EU

By James Joyner

Bronislaw Komorowski’s victory over Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the twin brother of  former president Lech Kaczynski, who was killed in a tragic plane crash in April, is good news for economic reform and integration with the EU.

Interim Ballistic Missile Defence for NATO forces ‘expected to be operational by the end of the year’

By ThalesRaytheonSystems

From ThalesRaytheonSystems:  ThalesRaytheonSystems (TRS) has been awarded a contract by NATO’s Active Layered Theater Ballistic Missile Defence (ALTBMD) Programme Office to provide the alliance commanders with real-time interim ballistic missile defence capabilities for deployed forces by the end of 2010.

Can NATO Be Saved?

By Sarwar Kashmeri

Sarwar Kashmeri, Senior Fellow with the Atlantic Council’s International Security Program, was interviewed by Vermont Public Radio about NATO, its future, and how it could be saved by allying with the EU’s Common Security and Defense Policy. You can listen to the interview using the audio player below, or read the transcript that follows. Audio […]