United States and Canada

Flournoy previews U.S. priorities for NATO’s Lisbon Summit

By Jim Garamone, Armed Force Press Service

From Jim Garamone, Armed Force Press Service:  NATO’s roadmap for a new world and its mission in Afghanistan will be the main topics of discussion when the alliance’s leaders gather in Lisbon, Portugal, in November for their annual summit, a senior Pentagon official said yesterday.

Deputy SecDef briefs NATO on new cybersecurity strategy

By Jim Garamone, Armed Forces Press Service

From Jim Garamone, Armed Forces Press Service:  Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn III stirred a lot of interest and questions on cybersecurity during a briefing to the North Atlantic Council at NATO headquarters here today.

Democracies of the World Unite

By Jeremy Kinsman, the International Herald Tribune

From Jeremy Kinsman, the International Herald Tribune:  At the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport recently, this global cause no longer seemed to impress a tough U.S. Homeland Security officer who challenged my explanation of what I was doing in the United States. “A ‘foreign democracy project’? Haven’t we stuck our noses enough in other peoples’ business and […]

The South Caucasus: “an area of great Western strategic interest?”

By Thomas de Waal, Foreign Policy

From Thomas de Waal, Foreign Policy:  A third mirage is the perception of the South Caucasus as an area of great Western strategic interest — an approach, paradoxically, that actually does more harm than good. Two factors have led to the point of view that the South Caucasus is of such global import: first, the […]

Lugar becomes center of gravity on New START

By Josh Rogin, the Cable

From Josh Rogin, the Cable:  As the New START nuclear reductions treaty with Russia finally comes to a committee vote this Thursday, the focus is shifting from Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman John Kerry (D-MA), who has been quarterbacking the Senate ratification process, to his Republican counterpart Richard Lugar (R-IN)

SecDef’s defense cut priorities

By John Barry and Evan Thomas, Newsweek

From John Barry and Evan Thomas, Newsweek:  If Gates has his way, the top brass will have to shed old habits and adjust to leaner times. Some of them will become civilians. The number of generals and admirals has increased by more than a hundred since 9/11, to 969 (and counting Reserves, roughly 1,300). Gates […]

Defence cut threat to the special relationship

By James Kirkup, the Telegraph

The IMF’s Thorny Transatlantic Feud

By Kati Suominen, the German Marshall Fund of the U.S.

From Kati Suominen, the German Marshall Fund of the U.S.:  In a move likely to please China, India, and Brazil, but force a confrontation with Europe, the Obama administration last month blocked plans that would maintain the current size of the board of directors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Medvedev says U.S. “envious” over European security system proposals

By RIA Novosti

From RIA Novosti:  The United States is experiencing a certain amount of envy over Russia’s attempts to create a new system of European security, President Dmitry Medvedev said on Friday. Medvedev proposed drawing up a new European security pact in June 2008, and Russia published a draft of the treaty in December 2009, sending copies […]

The Future of Canada’s Armed Forces

By the Economist

From the Economist:  Canada was a big air- and sea-power after the second world war, and deployed combat troops in the Korean war. Since then, however, its forces have focused on peacekeeping. In the 1990s a Liberal government balanced the budget on the back of the army, in what Rick Hillier, a former chief of […]