International Organizations

TRADE IN ACTION July 12, 2018

By Global Business & Economics Program

NATO Engages: Shoring Up the Alliance

By Ashish Kumar Sen

The opening day of NATO Engages: The Brussels Summit Dialogue was marked by passionate endorsements of the transatlantic military alliance that has been credited with giving the West its longest period of peace without a major power conflict in centuries. It also produced an attempt by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg to ease the Alliance’s […]

Nord Stream 2 is a Bad Deal for Europe

By Agnia Grigas and Lukas Trakimavičius

This week, Western leaders will gather at the NATO Summit in Brussels to discuss the most pressing issues of the day, likely including the construction of the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline. The pipeline, owned by Russian energy giant Gazprom, would significantly increase Moscow’s capacity to export natural gas directly to Germany. Nord Stream […]

Brexit: One Failed Plan, Two Resignations, and Plenty of Uncertainty

By Bart Oosterveld and Jörn Fleck

The illusion that British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative government had come up with something resembling a workable Brexit plan after months of uncertainty over the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union (EU) lasted little more than two days. On July 6, it appeared May had won support of her cabinet for some […]

NATO Needs to Get Smarter About AI

By Karlijn Jans

The United States’ complaint that few of its allies meet the 2 percent of GDP defense spending goal is likely to dominate the discourse at the NATO Summit in Brussels on July 11 and 12. While adequate burden sharing is important to maintain credible capabilities, this discussion will distract from what else is happening in […]

The Brexit Showdown

By Ashish Kumar Sen

British Prime Minister Theresa May’s government was engulfed in turmoil on July 9 as she lost two senior Cabinet members over her plans for a soft Brexit. Within a span of twenty-four hours, David Davis resigned as Brexit secretary and Boris Johnson as foreign secretary. If forty-eight members of Parliament write letters of no confidence, […]

Complementarity Without Competition: How NATO Can Benefit from Stronger European Defense Cooperation

By Ulrik Trolle Smed

Despite the current political tension in the transatlantic bond, the facts on the ground for NATO’s summit in Brussels on July 11 and 12 could not be better. After years of calls from the United States for more defense investment, NATO allies have been responding ever more credibly to meet the rising threats in the […]

How Europe’s Migration Crisis is Heating Up the Italy-Malta Relationship This Summer

By Matthew Lowell

The recent election of Italy’s new populist government led by the anti-immigration Lega political party and the anti-establishment Five Star Movement has added extra heat to the Mediterranean’s already sweltering summer. Over the past few weeks, Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, the head of the Lega party, followed through on his election promise of preventing […]