United States and Canada

NATO and the Future of Nuclear Weapons in Germany

German Minister of Foreign Affairs Guido Westerwelle: [W]e will continue to support the disarmament efforts taken all over the world, especially those envisaged by the Americans. But it is equally clear that those efforts aiming at disarming the world should not only be supported by the Germans but what we want to do is to […]

Estonia wants new NATO defense plans

By the AP

From the AP: Estonia’s defense minister is discussing with the United States why NATO needs plans in case his region is attacked. Jaak Aaviksoo told The Associated Press that his country sees new threats since Russia’s invasion of Georgia last year and a cyber attack that targeted his country in 2007. Aaviksoo plans to meet […]

NATO-Russia Reset Needed

By the Atlantic Council

From the Atlantic Council: The fact is that the window of opportunity for the Alliance and Russia to sort out their differences may be slowly but surely closing. Although further NATO enlargement has been put on a back burner, the pledge made by the Alliance leaders at the Bucharest summit last year states that Ukraine […]

Europe Still Likes Obama, but Doubts Creep In

By the New York Times

From the New York Times: [N]ine months into Mr. Obama’s presidency, trans-Atlantic relations are again clouded by doubts. Europe and the United States remain at least partly out of sync on Afghanistan, the Middle East, Iran and climate change. Many Europeans argue that Mr. Obama has not broken clearly enough with Bush administration policies that […]

Is Turkey Leaving the West?

By Foreign Affairs

From Foreign Affairs: A mountain is moving in Turkish foreign policy, and the foundation of Turkey’s 60-year-old military and political cooperation with the West may be eroding… But the AKP’s foreign policy has not promoted sympathy toward all Muslim states. Rather, the party has promoted solidarity with Islamist, anti-Western regimes (Qatar and Sudan, for example) […]

South Korea to send troops, engineers to Afghanistan

By Reuters

From Reuters: South Korea will send a security contingent of police and troops to Afghanistan to guard the work of a new and larger team of civilian engineers, its Foreign Ministry said on Friday. South Korea will not allow the troops to engage in combat operations, a ministry spokesman said. Seoul has been under pressure […]

War Games

By the Economist

From the Economist: Jitters in eastern Europe over Russia’s military manoeuvres… Big military exercises in western Russia and Belarus, which finished earlier this month, were based on the following improbable scenario: ethnic Poles in western Belarus rise up and “terrorists” from Lithuania attack the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. More than 10,000 troops from Russia and […]

Europe’s Obama Fatigue

By foreignpolicy.com

From foreignpolicy.com: Despite George W. Bush’s defiant “you’re with us or you’re against us” public stance, he actively solicited advice and input from his NATO partners. Obama, by contrast, is saying all the right things in public about transatlantic relations and NATO but adopting a high-handed policy and paying little attention to Europe. And Europe […]

Ridding Germany of U.S. Nuclear Weapons

By the New York Times

From the New York Times: There are, however, two hurdles Mr. [Guido] Westerwelle will have to jump. One is Europe’s two nuclear powers, Britain and France, which are afraid that after the U.S. arms are gone, their own nuclear weapons will come under scrutiny. The other is resistance inside the U.S.-led NATO military alliance. Many […]

Obama’s European Honeymoon Is Over

By foreignpolicy.com

From foreignpolicy.com: In his 1962 speech, Kennedy called for a “Declaration of Interdependence” with Europe. The administration of George H.W. Bush produced the “Transatlantic Declaration.” President Bill Clinton launched the “New Transatlantic Agenda” and “Joint U.S.-EU Action Plan.” But no such vision has yet emerged from the Obama administration. Instead, framed by a pragmatic and […]