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Medvedev throws decency a bone
October 30, 2009 2 min. read

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev came out today against the rehabiliation of Soviet leader Josef Stalin’s image, in no uncertain terms: “Millions of Soviet citizens died under Stalin’s rule and Mr Medvedev said it was not possible to justify those who exterminated their own people. He also warned against efforts to falsify history and defend repression.” […]

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Back from the Brink? US/China trade relations…
October 30, 2009 3 min. read

Looks like Mr. Hu and Mr. Obama and company may have stepped back from the brink of a trade war.  See CSFB report below on the recent G-2 meeting on trade and commerce.  Not that it’s all about individuals, but sometimes international relations can be driven by the tastes of individual leaders, as argued in a […]

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Emerging Europe has fiscal problems, says Fitch
October 29, 2009 5 min. read

  Fitch Ratings published a report this week analyzing the fiscal deterioration taking place in 21 countries in what it calls “Emerging Europe,” which includes three sizable economies — “rising” power Russia’s nearly $1.7 trillion economy, struggling Turkey’s $745 billion economy, and Poland’s nothing-to-sneeze-at $525 billion economy. Like much of the rest of the world, Emerging Europe juiced its […]

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Read these!
October 29, 2009 1 min. read

1) Iraq’s security forces must be depoliticized, and the Sons of Iraq must be better integrated into the national defense, writes former Mayor of Tel Afar Najim Abed Al-Jabouri. 2) Russia’s abstinence-based strategy on HIV is failing miserably. 3) Cutting down rows of olive trees won’t help the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. 4) If we’re so […]

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Afghanistan is a rural country
October 29, 2009 2 min. read
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Why are we trying to secure the ‘large population centers’ in a country that is overwhelmingly rural? Unless we’re now defining population centers as “villages with a few thousand people”, a population centric strategy focused on urban centers, in a rural country is, well, not going to work. Victor Sebestyen, in today’s New York Times, […]

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New Odds – The Face of Europe
October 29, 2009 1 min. read

“The race to become the first president of the European Union intensified on Tuesday, when Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourg’s veteran prime minister, put himself forward as a potential rival to Tony Blair, the former British premier,” begins an article in the Financial Times. The race to be the first president of Europe is heating up with […]

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The Importance of the United States
October 29, 2009 2 min. read

Steve Yetiv writes in the Christian Science Monitor that “bolstering America makes far more sense for world security in the 21st century than hoping for its decline or undermining it.” From the Middle East to Asia and from terrorism to nuclear proliferation to international economics, the United States helps keep the world safe and prosperous. […]

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If Abu Mazen quit, would anyone care?
October 28, 2009 2 min. read

Considering that under his leadership, Fatah, the single most important political group in Palestinian history, has been reduced to a total joke, the peace process non-existent (to be fair, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu deserves a lot of credit on that front, as well), and corruption and cronyism as rife as ever … well, no, […]

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So, about the surge …
October 27, 2009 3 min. read
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It’s simple to say that the surge fixed Iraq. John McCain basically ran for President on that notion. But it’s also overly simplified, with the biggest caveat being, frankly, that Iraq isn’t “fixed.” It’s perhaps the quintessential transitional state, emerging from a decades-long brutal dictatorship, torn asunder by the chaos of the American invasion (and […]

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The Failure of American Political Institutions … in Afghanistan
October 26, 2009 2 min. read

The announcement that Abdullah Abdullah and Hamid Karzai are not interested in a coalition government after the Afghan Presidential run-off is, in fact, not bad news. There’s no reason why a power-sharing agreement would make Afghanistan’s political system more stable, as both Karzai and Abdullah are aligned with the United States. The problems are more […]

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Welcome to the Euro-Atlantic Security Blog
October 25, 2009 1 min. read

Welcome to the Euro-Atlantic Security blog, the latest addition to the Foreign Policy Blogs family.  Here we’ll discuss issues related to the Atlantic security agenda, including, but not limited to: Nato: The new Nato Strategic Concept Nato’s role in Afghanistan The Partnership for Peace EU: Common Defense and Security Policy Rapid Reaction Force Eurofor Contributors […]

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Russia – Rising or Falling?
October 24, 2009 2 min. read

Is Russia on the rise or in decline? Does Moscow and its regional and global ambitions pose a threat to U.S. interests? In dueling analyses, Sean Goforth and Andrew Swift debate whether Russia is an over-hyped power or gaining ground and steadily tilting the balance of power in its direction. Goforth argues that “Russia undermines […]

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