Sometimes the writing on the wall is 10 feet tall, and you have to be willfully blind not to see it. The September attack on the U.S. embassy in Kabul on September 13, which has now been linked to Pakistani secret service officials, is surely such an instance. Getting attacked by terrorists backed by someone who is supposedly your ally is a new low. As Heritage’s Lisa Curtis correctly remarks, the Obama Administration has to make it absolutely clear that this is a game changer in the Pakistani–U.S. relationship. If …
The visit of German Chancellor Angela Merkel to Washington has attracted little attention in the US media, perhaps further proof that Berlin barely ranks as a world power these days, and consistently punches under its weight in international affairs. Compared to both David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy, Merkel is a remarkably low-key figure when it comes to global impact, despite the size of the German economy. Judging by the content of yesterday’s joint press conference in the White House East Room, which has to rank as among the most dull …
With Europe facing a massive fiscal mess and the United States buried under $14.3 trillion in debt, one might think that the leaders of the world’s eight major economies would get down to business to talk government overspending. But as Heritage’s Jim Roberts writes in The Christian Science Monitor, President Barack Obama and G8 leaders are meeting in France to discuss, among other things, proposed global regulations for the Internet. But debt won’t be served up as a topic of conversation on the G8′s table, even though it’s a major …
France’s declaration of war on al-Qaeda is merely a public statement of fact: France takes counterterrorism seriously. Following last weekend’s statement from al-Qaeda that it had murdered a septuagenarian French aid worker, Prime Minister Francois Fillon declared “war.” French troops have since attacked al-Qaeda bases in North Africa and ramped up cooperation with Paris’s regional allies. French President Nicolas Sarkozy should translate this public show of strength to France’s other theater of war against Islamist terrorists: Afghanistan. France has been just one of several European countries to under-resource the U.N.-mandated …
British Prime Minister David Cameron has completed a visit to Turkey with a passionate defense of Ankara’s aspiration to join the European Union. The charismatic young leader, who also completed a successful Prime Ministerial visit to Washington this month, has joined leading figures, such as U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, in accusing Brussels of not playing fair with Turkey. They’re right. When negotiations with Ankara began, Brussels set out 35 chapters of EU law for Ankara to discharge before a final vote on …
Russian President Dmitri Medvedev arrived in Paris on Monday for a three-day visit and to launch a new strategic partnership with France. The new Franco-Russian embrace is marked by major arms sales, a space deal, lucrative energy contracts and greater market access—all under the banner of a blossoming personal relationship between President Nicolas Sarkozy and Medvedev. But the blossoming Franco-Russian friendship appears poised to come at the expense of European security. We’ve been to this show before. The historical connection between France and Russia dates back before World War I. …
A new book has revealed sensational details about Russia’s invasion of Georgia in August 2008, claiming that French President Nicolas Sarkozy bullied Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili into signing a vague and unenforceable ceasefire agreement, which eventually saw Russia illegally annex large parts of Georgia’s territory. Sarkozy is quoted as saying: “Where is Bush? Where are the Americans? They are not coming to save you. No Europeans are coming, either. You are alone. If you don’t sign, the Russian tanks will be here soon.” This is just another insight into the …
You know something is amiss when the French take a harder line on national security than the United States. At the United Nations last week, French President Nicolas Sarkozy chided President Obama for his “dream” of ridding the world of nuclear weapons, reminding him that “we live in a real world, not a virtual world.” Ouch. The French like to sting American presidents, but this is different. It’s not the normal Gallic jab at America for being a “hyper power,” but a French leader reminding an American president of his …
The Wall Street Journal reports: President Sarkozy in particular pushed hard [to reveal Tehran's secret facility Thursday]. He had been “frustrated” for months about Mr. Obama’s reluctance to confront Iran, a senior French government official told us, and saw an opportunity to change momentum. But the Administration told the French that it didn’t want to “spoil the image of success” for Mr. Obama’s debut at the U.N. and his homily calling for a world without nuclear weapons, according to the Paris daily Le Monde. So the Iran bombshell was pushed …
It has not been a good week for the Czech Republic. On Thursday, President Obama formally ditched the agreement to deploy elements of America’s missile defense shield there. Twisting the knife further on Thursday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy threatened Prague with “consequences” of delaying ratification of Lisbon Treaty, making the statement completely unprompted. The Lisbon Treaty, a rehashed version of the twice-rejected European Constitution, is awaiting ratification in Ireland, Poland and the Czech Republic. Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer has indicated that it could take a further six months to …
