Europe & Eurasia

New British Government Calls Afghanistan Its Top Foreign Policy Priority

By  Reuters

From Reuters:  Ministers from Britain’s new coalition government were in Afghanistan on Saturday for talks with President Hamid Karzai and other officials … Foreign Secretary William Hague, Defense Secretary Liam Fox and International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell will meet Karzai and some of his ministers, visit British troops and also see a British-funded development project, officials […]

British Troops in Afghanistan to Get U.S. Commander

By Reuters

From Reuters:  Almost all British troops fighting in Afghanistan will answer directly to a U.S. commander as part of a restructuring of the NATO-led mission, NATO and the British army said on Friday. Helmand province, where military operations to oust Taliban militants have long been under British control, will fall under the command of U.S. […]

Turkey’s Zero-Problems Foreign Policy

By Ahmet Davutoğlu, Foreign Policy

From Ahmet Davutoğlu, Foreign Policy:  During the Cold War, Turkey was a "wing country" under NATO’s strategic framework, resting on the geographic perimeter of the Western alliance. NATO’s strategic concept, however, has evolved in the post-Cold War era — and so has Turkey’s calculation of its strategic environment. Turkey’s presence in Afghanistan is a clear […]

NATO Agrees to Split of Regional Command South, Afghanistan

By NATO

From NATO: On 21 May 2010, the North Atlantic Council, in consultation with non-NATO ISAF Troop Contributing Nations, gave final authorisation for the reorganisation of ISAF’s Regional Command South and the establishment of an additional Regional Command South-West – RC(SW) – in Afghanistan.

Russia and Ukraine Sign Protocol Resuming Russian Intelligence Presence in the Crimea

By RIA Novosti

From RIA Novosti: Russia and Ukraine signed on Wednesday a protocol regulating the presence of Russian security officers at the Black Sea Fleet facilities in Ukraine, the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) said. "The protocol stipulates the exchange of information and coordinated efforts to prevent illegal activities against Russia’s Black Sea Fleet that pose a threat […]

Finnish PM Says Finland Should Keep NATO Door Ajar

By Xinhua

Lavrov Tells EU, NATO Not to Meddle in CIS Affairs

By RIA Novosti

From RIA Novosti:  Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned on Wednesday the European Union and NATO against interfering in the internal affairs of post-Soviet states. Lavrov told the lower house of parliament that events such as the Ukrainian elections and the Kyrgyz revolution prove that interference in the internal affairs of independent states can produce […]

NATO: Reboot or Delete?

By Sarwar Kashmeri

It would be a pity to let NATO fade away; because it will then have to be reinvented someday. And that will not be easy. Today’s NATO is an increasingly dysfunctional organization, still searching for a new role two decades after the end of the Cold War. Left dangling in this state NATO will soon […]

Britain’s Speedy Transitions

By James Joyner

In American presidential elections, held on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November, the new president is sworn in at noon on January 20 and he has his full team in place in, oh, two years.   In the UK, the transition customarily takes place quite literally overnight and, when it takes a whole week […]

Goodbye to Europe?

By James Joyner

"It is more than a little ironic that NATO has committed itself to defining a new strategic concept at precisely the moment the transatlantic relationship counts for less than at any time since the 1930s."  So begins an FT op-ed by CFR president Richard Haass.