Politics & Diplomacy

Euro-Realism: For a Better Europe

By Julian Lindley-French

Myth has it that Trotsky believed capitalism would collapse under the weight of its own contradictions. In fact that was the so-called Ultra Leftists, as neither Lenin nor Trotsky thought capitalism would face a final reckoning, believing rather that capitalism would preserve itself at whatever cost. Only class struggle, they believed, would ensure the collapse […]

Turkey and the EU: Too Late?

Though his country has been aspiring to join the European Union since the 1960s, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan warns “the EU will lose Turkey” if action in accession does not happen by the 2023 centennial of the Turkish Republic.

NATO: Somali pirates seized no ships for 6 months

By AP

From AP:  NATO officials say no ships have been hijacked off the Somali coast in the second half of this year, reflecting a sharp decrease in piracy along one of the world’s busiest shipping routes.

The Fog of Political War

By Harlan Ullman

This isn’t an original theme. The reference was suggested to me two years ago by the governor of Pakistan’s Punjab province, Salman Taseer, three months before he was killed by one of his bodyguards in Islamabad.

Roundtable discussion with the UK prime minister’s special envoy to the Sahel

By Africa Center

The Michael S. Ansari Africa Center hosted a roundtable discussion with the Right Honourable Stephen O’Brien, MP, the UK prime minister’s special envoy to the Sahel. Since his appointment in September 2012, Mr. O’Brien’s role has been to lead the British government’s policy across that region, bridging the bureaucratic divide between the North Africa and […]

The EU’s Nobel Still-in-One Piece Prize

By Julian Lindley-French

It is one of those surreal European days. The EU has just formally accepted the Nobel Peace Prize when the sad truth is that far from multiplying European power and influence in the world the EU these days is diminishing it.

The tide has turned in Syria, is the West ready for the fall of Assad?

By Shashank Joshi, Telegraph

From Shashank Joshi, Telegraph:  [W]e are witnessing the beginning of the end for the Assad dynasty, the last republican monarchy of the Middle East. And events, as they often do, are moving quicker than our policies. At the end of November, the CIA is reported to have estimated that President Bashar al-Assad had just eight […]

An economic NATO would strengthen the U.S. and Europe

By Robert Nolan, U.S. News & World Report

From Robert Nolan, U.S. News & World Report:  As the European economy continues to tank, I’m often asked what the United States can do to help its friends across the Atlantic

It Is High Time for Congress to Focus on the ‘O’ in NATO

By Sarwar Kashmeri

As the U.S. Congress begins to trim the U.S. defense budget it should re-examine the structure of NATO and insist that the alliance’s bureaucracy reflect today’s geopolitical realities, not those prevailing at the end of World War II.

It is high time for Congress to focus on the ‘O’ in NATO

By Sarwar Kashmeri, Huffington Post

From Sarwar Kashmeri, Huffington Post:  As part of trimming the U.S. defense budget Congress should insist that within 3-5 years the responsibility for the defense of Europe and its periphery be transferred to the EU.