NATO and EU defence policy
The unravelling of the EU
03 July 2009
Prospect
Divided on foreign and defence policy, the EU seems to be slipping backwards. It must learn to speak in one voice, or others will shape the new world order, writes Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform.
Will the recession make Europe's militaries weaker?
12 June 2009
Foreign Policy
Governments across Europe are about to slash their defense budgets - but they need to ensure they cut correctly.The economic crisis has wracked government budgets across Europe, as revenues have fallen and spending on stimulus and bailouts has soared.
Fighting the leaderless jihad
01 March 2009
E!Sharp
The planned closure of the controversial US interrogation centre and prison at Guantánamo Bay should usher in deeper transatlantic cooperation in the fight against terrorism and other common security threats.
Defending European defence in partnership with NATO, strengthening the EU's military muscle is the right idea
09 December 2008
The Wall Street Journal
Ten years ago in St. Malo, Tony Blair and Jacques Chirac launched the European security and defence policy, or ESDP. They had the right idea: The European Union needs a defence arm if it is to play a global role, and with the demand for peacekeepers rising, ESDP could give a needed boost to the efforts of NATO and the United Nations. Or at least that was the theory.
Can the west help prevent an all-out war between Russia and Georgia?
08 August 2008
The Guardian
This week, Georgia made a bold gamble: it moved forces into South Ossetia; a province of Georgia that broke free in the early 1990s, in an attempt to re-assert its authority over parts or all of it.
Sarkozy's bold European defence initiative
24 March 2008
Financial Times
Gordon Brown will welcome Nicolas Sarkozy to London on March 27. Almost 10 years ago, their predecessors as British prime minister and French president, Tony Blair and Jacques Chirac, launched the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) at St Malo. At this week's Franco-British summit, defence co-operation will once again...
Constitutional fudge
19 June 2007
The Guardian
So far, Britain's stance on the German attempt to revise the EU treaties has been - from a British perspective - broadly reasonable.
Can the EU deal with its unruly neighbours?
21 December 2006
European Voice
What future security and defence challenges should the EU prepare for?Europe should be worried about the spread of weapons-of-mass-destruction (WMD), failing states and terrorism. In fact it already is.
What to do about Russia?
22 October 2006
The Guardian
Perhaps the most important challenge for EU foreign policy is to develop a more unified approach to Russia. The EU member-states have very similar interests in Russia.
At last, some hope for Ukraine
04 August 2006
The Guardian
The formation of a new government - four months after parliamentary elections - is good news for Ukraine. The coalition is broad-based: the party of President Victor Yushchenko, Our Ukraine, has strong roots in the rural west of the country; the Regions party, led by the new prime minister, Victor Yanukovich, dominates the east; and the Socialist party, the third member of the coalition, is popular among farmers in the centre.
What new transatlantic institutions?
01 June 2006
European Affairs
The last two years have seen a rapprochement across the Atlantic. The elevation of new personnel – such as Condoleezza Rice to the State Department and Angela Merkel as German Chancellor – has helped to remove some of the bitterness that the Iraq confrontation had left behind.
Turkey offers EU more punch
01 September 2005
European Voice
Rather than undermine the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy, Turkish membership of the Union could boost the bloc's power in trouble spots across the Middle East and Central Asia, argues Charles Grant.
Opponents of Turkish accession to the EU often claim that it would damage the cohesiveness of the EU's...
Opponents of Turkish accession to the EU often claim that it would damage the cohesiveness of the EU's...
A beacon of liberty flickers: Observations on Georgia
18 July 2005
New Statesman
President Bush proclaimed Georgia a "beacon for liberty" when he visited Tbilisi in May. Georgia has certainly made great progress since people power overthrew the corrupt and incompetent regime of Eduard Shevardnadze in 2003. Nevertheless, clouds are dimming the light of that beacon.
There is something amiss, for example, when none...
There is something amiss, for example, when none...