Obama's Afghanistan Speech And Strategy
Foreign policy and political experts assess the president's speech. Below are responses from Frederick W. Kagan, Kimberly Kagan, Matthew Dowd, Meghan O'Sullivan, Gilles Dorronsoro, Douglas E. Schoen, Andrew J. Bacevich, Ed Rogers and Dennis Kucinich. READ MORE
Expert: EU-US Relations Ripe For Lisbon Treaty Upgrade
Ron Asmus is currently executive director of the Brussels-based Transatlantic Center. He is also responsible for strategic planning at the German Marshall Fund of the US. READ MORE
Bridge on the Dnieper
Ukraine is in the news again, this time for its panicked response to a flu epidemic that has claimed over three hundred lives. In many countries, this would simply be a matter of public health, but in Ukraine, where politics is polarized by culture and region, an epidemic is another excuse for partisan wrangling. President Viktor Yushchenko is engaged in an escalating verbal battle with Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, a onetime ally now angling for his job. A presidential election is scheduled for January 17. READ MORE
Analyst: Russia Pushing US Out Of Europe
US President Barack Obama "does not care very much" about security in Europe, Edward Lucas, who has been The Economist's Eastern Europe correspondent for more than 20 years, told EurActiv Slovakia in an interview. READ MORE
Merkel Urges US, Europe To 'Tear Down Today's Walls'
Angela Merkel accepted a rare invitation and addressed the US Congress to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The German chancellor made it clear that climate change is a top priority. READ MORE
“The Event Was A Shock, We Had To Wait And See If It Was Going To Happen Peacefully”
20 years ago Jacques Delors, then President of the European Commission watched as the Berlin Wall fell. A privileged spectator of such historic change and a player in managing the consequences, he spoke to euronews about the days and weeks that changed the face of Europe. With two decades of hindsight, he told us what he feels about today’s Europe and the Europe of the future. READ MORE
EU's East-West Divide Shifts On US And Russia
The traditional European east-west divide towards the US and Russia is shifting, with 'Obama-mania' and the willingness to stand up to Moscow more frequent among western than eastern Europeans, a survey of the German Marshall Fund reveals. READ MORE
Placating Russia Won't Work
Russian leaders never liked the idea that the United States, Poland and the Czech Republic were cooperating on missile defense to confront an emerging Iranian threat. The notion that two former Warsaw Pact states that Moscow used to control would be hosting 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and a corresponding radar facility in the Czech Republic was unacceptable. Kremlin leaders alleged that the system was meant to target Russia, not counter Iran, and they had threatened to scuttle unrelated arms control negotiations with the United States unless Washington backed down. READ MORE
Caucasus: The War That Was, The World War That Might Have Been
Politicizing Ethnicity: US Plan to Repeat Yugoslav Scenario in Caucasus. READ MORE
The Hillary Doctrine
Hillary Clinton had quite the African odyssey. On the day she started her ambitious 11-day, seven country tour, husband Bill jetted off to Pyongyang and wrested two American journalists from Kim Jong-Il. Then, after dancing in Kenya, sitting down with Nelson Mandela, and upbraiding various African pols, her rumble in the jungle with a Congolese student was what dominated the headlines back home. READ MORE
