Politics & Diplomacy

Greek defense budget in need of reform?

By Judy Dempsey, International Herald Tribune

From Judy Dempsey, International Herald Tribune:  During the height of the global financial crisis of 2008, Greek defense expenditures accounted for 3.1 percent of gross domestic product. Over the past two years, Greek defense spending still amounted to 2.1 percent of G.D.P.

Much EU About Nothing?

By Julian Lindley-French

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has something of the night about him.  With the Germans about to lead the seventeen Eurozone countries into the greatest political leap in the dark since the creation of the European Union, Schaeuble has suggested that the British people be denied a referendum on their future relationship with a future German-led EU.

NATO needs a makeover

By Sarwar Kashmeri, the Hill

From Sarwar Kashmeri, the Hill:  So what can be done to modernize the transatlantic security equation?

The Decisive African Youth Vote

By Adrienne Chuck

The Arab Spring underscored the pivotal role that youth can play in a country’s economic and political stability. This is even truer in Sub-Saharan Africa, where 70 percent of the population is under the age of 30.

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.