Americas

Kagan: NATO ‘saved the people of Libya and kept alive the momentum of the Arab Spring’

By Robert Kagan, the Weekly Standard

From Robert Kagan, the Weekly Standard:  There is much to criticize in the way NATO handled the operations. The Libyan intervention was certainly not the death knell for the alliance, as some have suggested, but neither was it a sign of great strength and vitality.

Libya, Obama and the triumph of realism

By Robert Kaplan, the Financial Times

From Robert Kaplan, the Financial Times:  Realism is dead, clamour the cheerleaders of the Arab spring. The collapse of dictatorships in Tunisia, Egypt, and now Libya heralds a new birth of freedom that supposedly consigns realism to the graveyard.

White House offers Two Principles for Intervention instead of an Obama Doctrine

By Helene Cooper and Steven Lee Myers, the New York Times

From Helene Cooper and Steven Lee Myers, the New York Times:  It would be premature to call the war in Libya a complete success for United States interests. But the arrival of victorious rebels on the shores of Tripoli last week gave President Obama’s senior advisers a chance to claim a key victory for an […]

Libyan War Improves Pentagon’s View of France as an Ally

By Elisabeth Bumiller, the New York Times

From Elisabeth Bumiller, the New York Times:  [S]omething has happened on the bombing runs over Libya. France played a major role in this war, winning grudging respect from a Pentagon that has long looked down on many European militaries.

Libya Exposes Transatlantic Contradictions

By James Joyner, the New Atlanticist

From James Joyner, the New Atlanticist:  The late-night comedian Jon Stewart’s quip that “the U.S. handing Libya over to NATO is like Beyoncé saying she’s ceding control to Sasha Fierce” constantly came to mind as the fight dragged on.

With the Storming of Libya’s Bastille, the Arab Revolutions Begin a New Phase

By Michele Dunne, the New Atlanticist

From Michele Dunne, the New Atlanticist:  As Libyan rebel forces surged into Muammar Gaddafi’s Bab al-Azizia compound on August 23, the reverberations of their celebratory gunfire were felt far beyond Tripoli.

NATO missile defense passes its first field test

By NATO

The Return of the West

By Charles Cogan, the Huffington Post

From Charles Cogan, the Huffington Post:  The French press (or a part of it) is calling it "Sarkozy’s War."