At first glance the recent Franco-British treaty on defence looks like a model of pragmatism, tinged by a British desire to keep greater pan-EU defence cooperation at bay. But like so many European agreements over the last decades, this aspiration to preserve sovereignty may not prevent the treaty contributing to exactly that higher level of cooperation.
Following President Obama?s mauling in this week?s midterm elections, European diplomats will doubtless be working on memos to their ministers with titles like ?The Transatlantic Alliance and the Tea Party?. Richard Gowan suggests what they should say.
The mid-term elections in the United States are not just a set-back for President Obama at home: they will also limit his capacity to lead in the international arena at a time of rising powers and greater competition
A historian of the future writing about the decline of the West should include a few lines on the events of October 2010. The EU gave up some privileges at the IMF, but it’s not clear that the rising powers will now play by the West’s rules.
The announcement of a Franco-British defence partnership will be a watershed in European security thinking. Once that Rubicon has been crossed it will raise questions for their EU partners, and perhaps this will have a profound bearing on whether Europe can keep a seat in the global game.
Spain has a new minister of foreign affairs – Trinidad Jimenez. So what are the priorities? Firstly, to restore international confidence in Spain, but then to think of the long term challenges in a world that is changing quickly.
Britain’s defence review is deeply flawed because it is based on a self-deluding picture of the world. It brings to mind the spectacle of the Viking King, Canute, who one thousand years ago commanded the tide to stop on an English beach.
Just possibly, EU defence ministers may have realised that only their personal engagement will ensure co-operation between their military staff. This is vital as European countries look for a way to retain effective security capabilities in an era of shrinking budgets.
Europe is now shifting away from the ‘democratic enlargement’ paradigm that marked the first decades of the post-Cold War world. The EU needs to search for an alternative vision, engaging Turkey as a regional power and understanding the changes in Russia’s perspective as it seeks to modernise.
Waging even one war and winning it is complicated enough. Not to mention waging three different wars and winning them. This is what faces the international forces in Afghanistan. (In English and Spanish)