Europe & Eurasia

Ukraine ‘to increase its contribution in NATO-led peacekeeping missions and operations’

By the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine

From the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine:  Chief of the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Colonel General Volodymyr Zamana held official talks with Chairman of the NATO Military Committee General Knud Bartels.

Why Anglo-Polish Relations Need a Reset

By Julian Lindley-French

They call it the ‘Davos of the East’, the Krynica Economic Forum. It must be a mark of Europe’s desperate economic straits that I have been invited to speak at this huge economics conference. Thankfully, the question posed by my old friend Andrew Michta, Director of the German Marshall Fund Warsaw was closer to home; […]

French Defense Minister Le Drian trying ‘to move forward with the Europe of defense’

By Europolitics

From Europolitics:  French Minister of Defence Jean-Yves Le Drian believes that the ‘Europe of defence’ should move forward, namely because of the budget difficulties many countries are facing.

French Defense Minister Le Drian trying to relaunch European defense initiative

By Pierre Tran, Defense News

From Pierre Tran, Defense News:  French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian was due to meet European Union and NATO senior officials in a first visit to Brussels as part of France’s drive to relaunch a European defense initiative

Iran’s supreme leader says Nonaligned Movement, not NATO, should help resolve Syria crisis

By the AP

Germany and China: The New Special Relationship

By Stephan Richter, the Globalist

From Stephan Richter, the Globalist:  Now that the German Chancellor is once again visiting China, accompanied by scores of her top ministers and an outsized contingent of CEOs, the world is beginning to take note.

Europe’s September Phoenix

By Fran Burwell and Nicholas Dungan

As European leaders return to work after their summer holidays, they will find many of the same problems they left behind: the sovereign debt crisis, a vulnerable banking system and an unreconciled division over austerity vs growth. Amid the doom and gloom, however, it is worth pausing to celebrate how far Europe has come. 

Afghanistan: An Allotment in a Jungle

By Julian Lindley-French

Nothing makes my blood boil more than recently retired senior government officials suddenly changing their story once retired. Earlier this year I was excoriated for suggesting that our troops were dying in Afghanistan for want of a meaningful political strategy and to avoid the political embarrassment of leaders. Yesterday, Ambassador Sherard Cowper-Coles, London’s former ‘man […]