Western Europe

Obama to take UK Prime Minister to NCAA tournament game

By Ken Thomas, the AP

From Ken Thomas, the AP:  Talk about getting the royal treatment: President Barack Obama, an avid basketball fan, is bringing British Prime Minister David Cameron to an NCAA Tournament game in Ohio

Britain concerned about Obama’s pivot away from Europe

By Andrew Chuter, Defense News

Discussion with Jean-Yves Le Drian, Senior Advisor to Francois Hollande

By Adrienne Chuck

On March 7, the International Security Program hosted an off-the-record roundtable discussion with Mr. Jean-Yves Le Drian, senior foreign defense policy adviser to François Hollande, the Socialist candidate in France’s upcoming presidential elections. Atlantic Council Executive Vice President Damon Wilson moderated the conversation.

In Honour of Britain’s Afghan Fallen

By Julian Lindley-French

Today it was announced that six British soldiers serving in Afghanistan are missing presumed dead. Five of them were serving with The Yorkshire Regiment, my own county regiment, and the other with the Duke of Lancaster Regiment. My heart goes out to the family and friends of the fallen. They were part of a sustained […]

As Europe becomes a ‘sanctions machine,’ it still lacks a strategy

By Charlemagne, the Economist

From Charlemagne, the Economist:  Hardly a meeting of foreign ministers passes without punitive measures against a brutal regime: import and investment bans, restrictions on financial dealings, hit-lists with hundreds of people stopped from entering the EU and having their assets frozen.

British MoD reconsidering buying different version of F-35 fighter

By Richard Norton-Taylor, the Guardian

From Richard Norton-Taylor, the Guardian:  Britain’s troubled and increasingly expensive plan to equip the navy with new aircraft carriers has been plunged into fresh turmoil as ministers consider reversing their earlier decision to change the type of plane that should fly from them, it has emerged.

US expanding hi-tech intelligence base in Britain

By Richard Norton-Taylor, the Guardian

From Richard Norton-Taylor, the Guardian:  America’s largest eavesdropping centre in Britain, Menwith Hill in North Yorkshire, is being expanded in a multimillion-pound programme as it becomes increasingly vital to US intelligence and military operations

All NATO staff withdrawn from Afghan ministries after killing of US soldiers

By the BBC

From the BBC:  Two Nato officers have been killed in the interior ministry in the Afghan capital Kabul, coalition officials say.