Western Europe

Outgoing EU Military Chief Dismisses Drive for Single HQ

By Expatica France

From Expatica France: The outgoing British head of the European Union’s military staff on Thursday said a French-led drive for a single EU military command centre was unworkable. "There is not a one-sized feasible solution, neither from the point of view of politics nor from the pratical, military one," Lieutenant-General David Leakey told reporters as […]

NATO Chief Warns Britain: Don’t Cut Your Defence Budget Too Deeply

By the Times (London)

From the Times (London): Nato’s Secretary-General warned Britain yesterday not to cut defence spending too deeply as it grapples with its budget deficit. In an interview with The Times, Anders Fogh Rasmussen advised all cash-strapped Nato members to use the tough economic climate as an opportunity to make their armed forces more efficient to tackle […]

Britain’s Nuclear Arsenal is 225 Warheads, Reveals William Hague

By Richard Norton-Taylor, the Guardian

NATO Warship Rescues Crew from Ship in Peril in Cyclone

By NATO

From NATO:   HMS Chatham’s Bridge team received a distress call from the Master of MV Dubai Moon, who said that his ship was caught in a tropical storm 90 miles south west of Socotra and struggling to make headway in extremely rough seas and high winds. … As HMS Chatham made her way into the […]

New British Government Calls Afghanistan Its Top Foreign Policy Priority

By  Reuters

From Reuters:  Ministers from Britain’s new coalition government were in Afghanistan on Saturday for talks with President Hamid Karzai and other officials … Foreign Secretary William Hague, Defense Secretary Liam Fox and International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell will meet Karzai and some of his ministers, visit British troops and also see a British-funded development project, officials […]

British Troops in Afghanistan to Get U.S. Commander

By Reuters

From Reuters:  Almost all British troops fighting in Afghanistan will answer directly to a U.S. commander as part of a restructuring of the NATO-led mission, NATO and the British army said on Friday. Helmand province, where military operations to oust Taliban militants have long been under British control, will fall under the command of U.S. […]

NATO Agrees to Split of Regional Command South, Afghanistan

By NATO

From NATO: On 21 May 2010, the North Atlantic Council, in consultation with non-NATO ISAF Troop Contributing Nations, gave final authorisation for the reorganisation of ISAF’s Regional Command South and the establishment of an additional Regional Command South-West – RC(SW) – in Afghanistan.

Britain’s Speedy Transitions

By James Joyner

In American presidential elections, held on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November, the new president is sworn in at noon on January 20 and he has his full team in place in, oh, two years.   In the UK, the transition customarily takes place quite literally overnight and, when it takes a whole week […]

The EU, NATO and the Limits of Burdensharing

By Charlemagne, the Economist

From Charlemagne, the Economist: Since 1949, Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty has bound NATO members to a solemn vow: an armed attack on one of the alliance shall be treated as an attack against all. With international markets closed to Greece, and contagion threatening Portugal and Spain, European Union leaders agreed to a […]

Signals of Foreign Policy Vigor in London

By Frederick Kempe

Atlantic Council president and CEO Fred Kempe was interviewed by CFR’s Deborah Jerome on the foreign policy implications of the change of Government in the UK. After forming the first coalition government in sixty-five years, Conservative David Cameron, now prime minister, and Liberal Democrat Nick Clegg, his deputy, touted their shotgun marriage as what Cameron […]