NATO

NATO and the Near Abroad: Beyond Bucharest

By Nikolas Gvosdev

Those predicting that the Russian incursion into Georgia will rejuvenate transatlantic solidarity might be overly optimistic.

Bush Can Score With Diplomacy When He Tries

By Frederick Kempe

Praising President George W. Bush’s foreign policy skill is a sure way to lose dinner invitations in Washington. So hold the dessert: Bush and his team deserve credit for playing the bad hand of his waning presidency skillfully and tenaciously at this month’s NATO summit in Bucharest.

German Chill Toward NATO’s Growth Ignores Past

By Frederick Kempe

There are still times when Germans must be reminded of history’s lessons. One of those came after the Sept. 11 attacks, when a courageous Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder risked a no-confidence vote to take German combat troops to Afghanistan. His argument: History’s obligation wasn’t pacifism, as many argued, but a willingness to shed blood against new […]

Saving Afghanistan: An Appeal and Plan for Urgent Action

Make no mistake, the international community is not winning in Afghanistan. Unless this reality is understood and action is taken promptly, the future of Afghanistan is bleak, with regional and global impact. The purpose of this paper is to sound the alarm and to propose specific actions that must be taken now if Afghanistan is […]

U.S.-Turkey Relations Require New Focus

A series of expert working papers released today by the Atlantic Council call for Turkey and the United States­ ­to give grea­ter priority to working in a trilatera­l f­ormat with Europe on energy sec­urity, co­unter-terrorism, and building regional stability in the broader Middle East.  The United States and Turkey have drifted apart­ since the end […]

Bush Should Offer France’s Sarkozy a NATO Deal

By Frederick Kempe

Bush administration officials have been engaged in a quiet debate about how eagerly to seize a chance to improve French-U.S. relations during President Nicolas Sarkozy’s Washington visit, which started yesterday.

Launching a New NATO – EU Relationship

By Transatlantic Relations Program

In late November, the leaders of the NATO nations will gather in Riga for “a transformation summit.” Yet, if the agenda develops as currently planned, the Alliance will not even consider a fundamental element of transformation — building a new partnership with the European Union. The failure to establish a strong relationship with the EU […]

Transatlantic Transformation: Building a NATO-EU Security Architecture

Since 1989, the security environment facing the United States and its European allies has changed beyond recognition. The Soviet Union has disintegrated, as has the division of Europe between East and West, and new threats have arisen. The disintegration of Yugoslavia in the 1990s demonstrated that instability and war emerging from failing states could affect […]