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New Atlanticist

Dec 7, 2009

Turkey Turns East While West Dithers

By Nicholas Siegel

“Will Turkey join the European Union?  That’s up to the Europeans.  All we see is that when we go to Europe they treat us like we are nothing – whereas in the Middle East they look up to us.”  Such were the words of a Turkish diplomat I spoke to in Washington recently.

Turkey

NATOSource

Dec 7, 2009

NATO not the forum to discuss Russian treaty plan: Rasmussen

By AFP

From AFP: NATO’s chief insisted Friday that the military alliance is not the best place to discuss Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s plan for a new European security pact. Speaking after talks between NATO and Russian foreign ministers, Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the broader Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is best […]

NATOSource

Dec 7, 2009

NATO clears entry plan for Montenegro, Bosnia waits

By Reuters

From Reuters: NATO offered a formal membership plan to Montenegro on Friday but withheld an invitation to its Balkan neighbour Bosnia, saying it needed further democratic reforms and a more effective military first. Membership for Montenegro, an independent state since 2006, could still take years as the former Yugoslav republic of 650,000 people has to […]

New Atlanticist

Dec 7, 2009

Shale Gas Could Transform Energy Geopolitics

By Robert Manning

Lost amidst the doom and gloom over global warming and energy dependence on the Middle East and Russia is the fact that new technologies and drilling techniques are allowing recovery of gas trapped in shale and gradually but inexorably transforming the global energy security equation. For all the hopes of transitioning to renewable energy sources, […]

New Atlanticist

Dec 7, 2009

Mark Mardell Interview: Obama’s Afghanistan Strategy

By James Joyner

Sarwar Kashmeri, a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s International Security Program, interviewed Mark Mardell, North America editor of the BBC, for the New Atlanticist Podcast Series.  Mardell discussed President Obama’s recently announced Afghanistan strategy.

NATOSource

Dec 4, 2009

European Militaries Underfunded and Ill-Equipped

By the Wall Street Journal

From the Wall Street Journal: No amount of pleading and shaming has worked on the continentals. NATO launched the ‘Defense Capabilities Initiative’ in 1999, only to abandon it a few years later. Various attempts to stand up European ‘rapid reaction’ forces have floundered. Most European countries also commit more than half of what little they […]

United States and Canada

NATOSource

Dec 4, 2009

NATO Announces More Forces to Afghanistan

By NATO

From NATO: [N]ations are backing up their words with deeds. At least 25 countries have announced that they will send more forces to the mission in 2010. They have offered around 7,000 new forces, with more to come. Counting the US contribution, that means ISAF will have at least 37,000 more soldiers in 2010 than […]

United States and Canada

New Atlanticist

Dec 4, 2009

Afghanistan Deadline: What Happens in July 2011?

By James Joyner

Most of the postmortems of President Obama’s Afghanistan strategy speech focused on the announcement of an 18 month timetable after which a drawdown and handover to local forces would begin. Opposition Republicans took the president at his word and warned about signaling weakness, whereas critics in his own party saw the deadline as a cynical […]

Afghanistan

New Atlanticist

Dec 4, 2009

Afghanistan Debate Over, Now Time to Execute

By James Cook

Although perhaps delivered with less emotion than some would like from such a gifted orator, President Obama delivered his Afghanistan strategy.  We can expect additional strategic and operational details to emerge in the coming weeks but the speech outlined some broad guidelines that military and other planners can use as strategic direction. 

Afghanistan

NATOSource

Dec 4, 2009

U.S. may boost foreign training in Germany

By Stars and Stripes

From Stars and Stripes: In an effort to boost cooperation between troops carrying out missions alongside each other in war zones, U.S. military officials are looking to permanently station foreign troops at U.S. training areas in Germany… While foreign troops already conduct some training at U.S. bases in Hohenfels and Grafenwöhr, this would be the […]

United States and Canada
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