Western Europe

NATO MPs to Visit Israel to Examine Weapons R&D

By Lahav Harkov, Jerusalem Post

From Lahav Harkov, Jerusalem Post:  A NATO Parliamentary Assembly committee will examine Israeli research and development in the field of security technology, MKs learned Sunday in Luxembourg.

Hollande’s Europe

By Julian Lindley-French

“It is my responsibility as a leader of a founder member of the European Union…to pull Europe out of this torpor that has gripped it, and to reduce people’s disenchantment with it.  If Europe stays in the state it is in now, it could be the end of the project.”  Europe owes French President Francois Hollande a […]

Dambusters

By Julian Lindley-French

All of we Brits of a certain age remember the film.  Richard Todd coolly leading his elite squadron of Lancaster bombers into attack the Mohne, Eder, and Sorpe dams.  British stiff-upper lip and brilliant “bouncing bomb” technology combining against the backdrop of a stirring but peculiarly 1950s soundtrack to deal the Nazis a crippling blow.  Seventy years […]

NATO’s Plan for Afghanistan Post-2014: A ‘Stable Instability’

By Michael Hirsh, Atlantic

From Michael Hirsh, Atlantic:  Senior commanders with the American-led International Security Assistance Force, which consists of 28 NATO countries and 22 other participating nations, say that substantial aid and military support is going to be necessary well after the scheduled withdrawal at the end of 2014.

Gap Between French Ambitions and Cuts in Deployable Forces

By Julian Lindley-French, New Atlanticist

From Julian Lindley-French, New Atlanticist:  On 29 April the French published their first defense review in over twenty years.

Strategy Session on Transatlantic Defense with German Air Force Chief of Staff

On May 15, the Atlantic Council hosted Lieutenant General Karl Müllner, Germany’s Air Force chief of staff, for a strategy session about pertinent issues in transatlantic and German defense in an era of budget austerity and emerging security challenges.

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