Economy & Business

TTIP: A Ray of Hope for European Defense?

By Leo Michel

It’s been two years since then defense secretary Robert Gates, noting that the US share of NATO defense spending had risen from 50 to 75 percent since the end of the Cold War, sent this blunt message to Europe: “(I)f current trends in the decline of European defense capabilities are not halted and reversed, future […]

Chancellor Merkel’s Strategic Opportunity

By Ulrich Speck

If a European leader these days can be called assertive, it’s Angela Merkel. The trouble is, assertiveness is not a foreign policy. Germany is still not thinking strategically—but that is what it needs to do. Receiving Barack Obama in Berlin on June 19, the German chancellor’s bold approach was on full display. She lectured the […]

TTIP Negotiations Underway

By Garrett Workman

Yesterday, delegations from the European Commission and Office of the US Trade Representative met for the start of the initial round of official TTIP negotiations here in Washington. Despite the calls of some in Europe to delay the talks after it was revealed that the US National Security Agency had been spying on some European […]

Want to Save Dodd-Frank? Consider TTIP

By Garrett Workman

Commentary Chris Brummer | New AtlanticistThe Atlantic Council’s C. Boyden Gray Fellow on Global Finance and Growth Dr. Chris Brummer, argues that TTIP offers a major opportunity to promote regulatory coherence and prevent arbitrage across the Atlantic in financial services. This opportunity should be seized. Instead of exempting finance from TTIP negotiations, transatlantic regulatory cooperation […]

US Rebalancing Asia, Not Containing China

By Robert A. Manning

A widely held belief among many in China is that every US policy move affecting the country is part of a concerted strategy of containment aimed at preventing its reemergence. Thus, the US “rebalancing” in Asia, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the US alliances with Japan, South Korea and Australia are all components of a US […]

Snowden: Why France is Angry

By Julian Lindley-French

It was as predictable, subtle and French as a first tasting of a Chassagne Montrachet Premier Cru – full of hidden complexity and fascinating ‘notes’. French President Hollande’s condemnation of Edward Snowden-alleged American spying in Europe was dramatically shrill. “We cannot accept”, the President thundered, “…this kind of behaviour between allies and partners”, before going […]

A Resurgent Terrorist Threat in Spain?

By Alexander Ward, New Atlanticist