International Organizations

Europe needs a miliary avant-garde

By Charles Grant, the Center for European Reform

From Charles Grant, the Center for European Reform:  The Libyan operation has shown that the US now expects Europe to look after its own backyard.

Advice for Obama: Coalitions require constant care and attention

By Meghan O’Sullivan, the Washington Post

From Meghan O’Sullivan, the Washington Post:  Given the most obvious differences between Iraq and Libya — no ground troops in Libya and no U.N. resolution in Iraq — few will take issue with [President Barack] Obama’s protestation.

Lady in Waiting: Where is the EU’s foreign policy chief?

By Stephen Castle, Foreign Policy

From Stephen Castle, Foreign Policy:  The crisis in Libya is a rare instance in which Europeans can plausibly claim to be outdoing Americans in foreign policy, and a rarer one still of the old world being more prepared than the new to use its military muscle. But while France and Britain have burnished their leadership […]

Europe Had Better Wake Up

By Lord Robertson, the New Atlanticist

From Lord Robertson, the New Atlanticist:  Europe, despite its relative prosperity and economic muscle, is still not, as we have seen, able to act in its own self-interest without US leadership and military capabilities.

Swedish legislature approves sending fighter jets to Libya

By the Local

From the Local:  Sweden’s Riksdag on Friday voted overwhelmingly in favour of Sweden sending JAS Gripen fighter aircraft to Libya to monitor a UN-backed no-fly zone. The parliament voted through the proposal by a resounding 240 to 18, with five abstentions. "Sometimes the risk of intervening is less than the risk of not doing so," […]

Chancellor Merkel’s Shellacking

By the Editors of the New York Times

From the Editors of the New York Times:  Even after pandering to voters’ fears about nuclear power, the euro and NATO operations in Libya, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany got a shellacking in her Christian Democratic party’s traditional bastion of Baden-Württemberg.

NATO Chief: “We are there to protect the Libyan people, not to arm the people”

By Slobodan Lekic, the AP

From Slobodan Lekic, the AP:  NATO’s chief said Thursday the alliance doesn’t support U.S. and British suggestions that the U.N. mandate for the international military operation in Libya allows arming rebels who are fighting Moammar Gadhafi’s troops.

New Report: “most NATO members have taken sides in what amounts to a civil war”

By the NATO Defense College

Europe’s Troubled Neighborhood (Policy)

By Matthew Czekaj

Unlike people, countries cannot choose their own neighborhoods, and the countries of the European Union are surrounded by some pretty turbulent suburbs. Yet, collectively, the EU has not been content to give in to the geographic hand it was dealt. Rather than simply putting up a barbed wire fence – though it has tried some […]