International Organizations

UN Secretary-General Ki-moon Uses Harshest Rhetoric Yet in Call to End Bloodshed in Syria

WASHINGTON, May 7 – United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon tonight escalated the pressure on the international community to stop the violence in Syria, lamenting a “deficit of leadership,” while announcing a new deployment of observers to the country. 

Central European nations agree to set up joint combat force

By AFP

From AFP:  Defence ministers from Visegrad Group states grouping the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia agreed Friday to create a 3,000-strong joint combat unit to be put at the EU’s disposal.

Turkey blocks EU from NATO summit unless OIC also attends

By Servet Yanatma, Today's Zaman

From Servet Yanatma, Today’s Zaman:  Ankara says it will block EU participation in an upcoming NATO summit unless the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is also allowed to be present.

Hungary Through the Mirror

By Kurt Volker

Read any column about Hungary today and it will tell you how Prime Minister Viktor Orban is tearing up checks and balances and asserting one-sided control over Hungary’s democratic institutions. The European Union, the IMF, the Venice Commission and the U.S. government have all responded, demanding changes in many of the laws hastily waved through […]

France votes to throw down the gauntlet to Europe

By Gideon Rachman, the Financial Times

From Gideon Rachman, the Financial Times:  France feels surrounded. To the south is the debt-driven austerity and social upheaval of Greece, Spain and Italy. To the north and west are the Anglo-Saxon markets of Wall Street and the City. To the east are the implacable Germans insisting on their new fiscal pact