Europe & Eurasia

Military chief: EU becoming ‘marginal’ in Asia-centric world

By Andrew Rettman, EUobserver

EU considers sending 200 troops to train Mali army

By Sebastian Moffett, Reuters

France and transatlantic relations under the Hollande government

By Nicholas Dungan, Atlantic Council

From Nicholas Dungan, Atlantic Council:  On the global stage, France under Hollande will revert to a more traditional Gaullist posture, with the goal of indépendance nationale.

Erdogan: EU will lose Turkey if it hasn’t joined by 2023

By Orhan Coskun, Reuters

From Orhan Coskun, Reuters:  The European Union will lose Turkey if it doesn’t grant it membership by 2023, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday.

Clinton to Bosnia: ‘We want to see you in NATO’

By Hillary Rodham Clinton, Department of State

From Hillary Rodham Clinton, Department of State:  The United States shares with the European Union a vision of a peaceful, stable, prosperous Bosnia-Herzegovina that is fully integrated into the Euro-Atlantic institutions.

Intervening in Syria the right way

By   François Heisbourg, Washington Post

From  François Heisbourg, Washington Post:  Politically speaking, the United States is likely to recover room to maneuver after Nov. 6, whether President Obama is reelected or a president-elect Mitt Romney is working in tandem with the incumbent. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has been clamoring for active NATO support

Britain rejects US request to use UK bases in nuclear standoff with Iran

By Nick Hopkins, Guardian

From Nick Hopkins, Guardian:  Britain has rebuffed US pleas to use military bases in the UK to support the build-up of forces in the Gulf, citing secret legal advice which states that any pre-emptive strike on Iran could be in breach of international law.

Merkel’s Great Euro Deception

By Julian Lindley-French

In the run-up to D-Day in 1944 the British ran a superb deception campaign called Operation Fortitude to fool the Germans as to the real location of the invasion. It worked spectacularly. Today, the Germans are being fooled again, this time by their own government.

Europe and the ‘Asia Pivot’

By Tomas Valasek, International Herald Tribune

From Tomas Valasek, International Herald Tribune:  What is NATO to do? One school of thought in Europe holds that an alliance with such widely different capabilities will not survive.