European Union

Can Anything Stop Europe Disarming?

By Julian Lindley-French

The world is playing stud poker, whilst Europe plays bad chess. Last week’s stern warning from US NATO Ambassador Ivo Daalder that Europeans should use the money saved by withdrawing from Afghanistan to reverse crippling defense cuts was surely just another tiresome American whinge? In fact Daalder is dead right.

Defense spending among E.U. member states at a record low

By Judy Dempsey, International Herald Tribune

From Judy Dempsey, International Herald Tribune:  At the end of this month, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the NATO secretary general, will release new figures on defense spending by the 28 Alliance members.

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?

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 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.

The tide has turned in Syria, is the West ready for the fall of Assad?

By Shashank Joshi, Telegraph

From Shashank Joshi, Telegraph:  [W]e are witnessing the beginning of the end for the Assad dynasty, the last republican monarchy of the Middle East. And events, as they often do, are moving quicker than our policies. At the end of November, the CIA is reported to have estimated that President Bashar al-Assad had just eight […]