Western Europe

Hollande’s Survival Mode Endangers Survival

By Nicholas Dungan

From his 75 percent income tax to his 25 percent approval ratings, François Hollande, the French president who took office one year ago, has already been judged the hapless Louis XVI on the eve of the French Revolution or the feckless René Coty who presided over the demise of the Fourth Republic. But what has […]

The Growing Franco-German Schism

By Frederick Kempe

 Occasionally a public opinion survey surfaces that signals a seismic event. That is the case with a new report from the Pew Research Center that measures the widening tremors of a political earthquake now shaking Europe. Although the report leads with evidence that  Europeans are increasingly losing faith in the European Union (which I wrote […]

US Reluctant to Support More European Adventures in MENA

By Richard Gowan, World Politics Review

Europe’s Strategic Future: Implications of the Eurozone Crisis

By Atlantic Council and the Royal United Services Institute

The Atlantic Council and the Royal United Services Institute have issued a joint publication entitled Europe’s Strategic Future: Implications of the Eurozone Crisis. The report features perspectives from the United States, the United Kingdom, and India analyzing how the Eurozone crisis is likely to impact Europe’s role in the world. Download the PDF

Europe’s Defense Double Dutch

By Julian Lindley-French

On this anniversary of the 1940 Nazi invasion of the Low Countries it is perhaps appropriate to consider the state of Europe’s defense. Two events highlighted the essential contradiction between resources and commitments that bedevils European defense.  On 29 April the French published their first defense review in over twenty years.  Full of Parisian sophistry it failed […]

NATO Allies Participate in Estonia’s Spring Storm Exercise

By Postimees

From Postimees:  In addition to Estonian troops, around 350 land force personnel from Belgium, Britain, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as about 100 Polish airmen will take part in this year’s edition of Spring Storm, the largest annual exercise of the Estonian defense forces.

French defense review has both good and bad news for NATO

By Jeff Lightfoot, New Atlanticist

From Jeff Lightfoot, New Atlanticist:  France’s new White Book on defense and national security offers no radical thinking on the future posture and structure of France’s military and national security establishment

France’s White Book: Both Good and the Bad for the US and NATO

By Jeffrey Lightfoot

France’s new White Book on defense and national security offers no radical thinking on the future posture and structure of France’s military and national security establishment, maintaining previous strategic ambitions and positions even in the face of a faltering economy. This is both good news and bad news for Washington and other major French allies. […]

The Peasant’s Revolt

By Julian Lindley-French

High up in the majestic Yorkshire hills I am but a flat-cap stone’s throw from my native Sheffield.  The sheep stand fast protecting their new-born lambs from the scything, sheeting and predatory rain.  This is a place of unforgiving beauty. It was much the same back in 1381 when Wat Tyler and Jack Straw led the Peasant’s […]