Harvard University’s Niall Ferguson recently criticized the Obama Administration for lacking foresight and planning over the events in Egypt. The point of his criticisms of the Administration—and, by extension, the European Union—was illustrated over a year ago in a Heritage Foundation “war game.” In late 2009, Heritage invited security experts and Washington-based policymakers to “game” a fictional scenario of its own whereby Tunisia was hit with a major earthquake. Significant political and civil unrest followed, accompanied by large numbers of refugees flowing from Tunisia to Italy and Malta. The exercise …
The Wikileaks revelations have been described as the “9/11 of diplomacy”. One not-so-secret revelation, however, is news that the Obama Administration doesn’t hold the transatlantic alliance in particularly high regard. For Obama, America’s European allies are like pawns on a chess board—to be arm twisted into supporting the Democrats political agenda wherever necessary. And nothing is higher on Obama’s agenda right now the New START Treaty. The latest European voice ‘spontaneously’ calling for ratification of the treaty is Anders Fogh Rasmussen, secretary general of NATO. Rasmussen states: “As a former …
In his annual address Tuesday to both houses of parliament, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev warned that a new arms race would erupt if Moscow and the West cannot agree on a joint European missile defense program. Medvedev gave the following ultimatum: “Either we reach agreement on missile defense and create a full joint cooperation mechanism, or, if we don’t go into a constructive agreement, a new phase of the arms race will begin. And we will have to make a decision on deploying new means of attack.” Prime Minister Vladimir …
Speaking to the media this weekend, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told CBS’s Bob Schieffer that at NATO’s Lisbon Summit this weekend, many European states including Germany, Poland and the Baltic states had pressed the Administration on the ratification of New START. During one of the summit’s many news conferences, President Obama also stated, “Unprompted, I have received overwhelming support from our allies here that Start — the New Start treaty — is a critical component to U.S. and European security.” However, Czech defense minister, Alexandr Vondra revealed that it …
President Obama’s flying visit to Lisbon this weekend resulted in a mixed bag of results. On a practical level, NATO made big strides in fashioning the transatlantic alliance for the 21st century. On a personal level however, President Obama did not succeed in turning this weekend’s summits into ones that prioritized new START. By far and away, the most important of the three summits this weekend was the NATO heads-of-state summit. The alliance agreed its first Strategic Concept of the millennium, outlining NATO’s core purpose and tasks. The 2010 Strategic …
The NATO summit to be held in Lisbon on Nov. 19–20 has a hefty agenda in which Russia features prominently. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is defining its role in Afghanistan; is seeking agreement on joint missile defense; and is hosting Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. The Lisbon NATO summit is supposed to be attended by 27 state heads, plus Medvedev who will attend the separate NATO-Russia summit. Despite viewing NATO’s enlargement as a threat, Moscow still conducts a dialogue with the organization. This is understandable, as the real threats to …
With the nuclear New START Treaty causing waves in Congress, President Obama’s recent overseas trips drawing criticism from both supporters and opponents, and the upcoming NATO heads-of-state summit in Lisbon this month, a fundamental question arises: What is America’s role in the world? In the newest installment in the Understanding America series, Marion Smith looks to the words and intent of the Founders themselves in order to understand their view of American foreign policy. Liberty, he argues, is the defining principle of American policy, both domestic and foreign. As an …
As NATO leaders head to the alliance’s summit in Lisbon later this month, they should applaud the Czech Republic for increasing their troop contribution to the mission in Afghanistan during one of the most crucial periods for the counterinsurgency strategy. In December 2009, President Obama announced that America would deploy an additional 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan. Great Britain, Poland, Georgia, South Korea, and Italy pulled together a further 7,000 troops to support the population-centric strategy. However, France, Germany, Belgium, and other European countries once again failed to equitably share …
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw (Radek) Sikorski was probably being polite when he described, in a conference call on Friday with U.S. policy experts, the U.S. government as “a friend of the Eastern Partnership” initiative, a Polish-Swedish venture within the EU, which covers Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, and the three countries of the Caucasus. The disparity between the U.S. and EU in terms of economic resources dedicated to Eastern Europe is overwhelming. While the EU spends billions on supporting this partnership, the United States spends a grand total of $311 million annually …
As NATO gears up for its summit in November, one of the top agenda items for discussion is missile defenses — namely, whether NATO will make it a core mission and how the alliance can cooperate with the United States in building a transatlantic missile defense umbrella. The Obama administration’s approach to missile defense is two-fold — much the same approach as the Bush administration. President Obama is talking to nations bilaterally about hosting U.S. facilities such as radar and interceptors, which he wants to build up in several phases. …
