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David Francis: Obama’s popularity should not be interpreted as a shift in German policy towards the United States. Many officials I spoke with while reporting from Berlin earlier this year said Germany will continue to act in its own interests no matter who is in the White House.
As a
journalist who covers U.S-European relations and as a U.S. citizen who
hopes for better relations with Europe in the next administration, it
was quite gratifying to see so many Berliners waving American flags to
greet U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama in Tiergarten last week.
Too often in the last eight years, Germany has
greeted American politicians with disinterest, disdain or worse. The
images ...More
Sanam Vakil: Tehran’s factional disputes are rooted in the very character of the Iranian regime. They ensnare even its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. But this can also mean that these figures’ political resilience in face of criticism can be underestimated.
These are tense times in Tehran. In the past weeks, the Islamic Republic of Iran has repeatedly made global headlines amid an atmosphere of escalating unsettlement.
Even in the short period of mid-June to mid-July 2008, Iran has
intimated that it might be willing to negotiate over its nuclear program in response to the "freeze-for-freeze" offer extended by the "group of six" (United States, Russia, China, Germany, France and the Britain)
been ...More
Matthias Stephan Fifka: Even if Obama enjoys much more sympathy abroad and is being received like a rock star by the public, his foreign policy would not differ essentially from McCain’s. The biggest discrepancy between the candidates are the expectations of the Europeans, who are likely to be disillusioned with Obama as president.
There is hardly a better time to look at the potential foreign
policy of the two presidential hopefuls than during these last weeks of July.
While John McCain quarrels with the New
York Times over his rejected editorial on Iraq policy, Barack Obama is
roaming the Middle East and Europe - eager for pictures with presidents and
prime ministers - to polish up his rather limited foreign policy credentials.
It is no surprise that the "image tour" of the young ...More
Rüdiger Lentz: Obama’s speech at the Victory Column in Berlin, impressive as it was, contained more empty slogans than substance. This was not the radical change he promised during his primary campaign. His charisma might not be enough to win the elections.
No doubt,
Obama's speech at the Victory Column in Berlin will have its impact. The images
of the tens of
thousands of mostly young people cheering him are surely
impressive. There is a new political quality around this presidential candidate
that has to be reckoned with. But will his speech have the impact on global
politics that he wants to make us believe it will? Or even on the American
elections which his speech was also carefully crafted ...More
Daniel Fiott: Any revision of the European Security Strategy later this year should aim to deal with the security threats posed by climate change, energy security, human security, cyber crime and the incoherence of the European Union’s military capabilities.
The adoption of the ESS in 2003 identified several security threats that the EU would have to work in unison to remedy. Terrorism, the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction, regional conflicts, state failure and organised crime all formed part of a security ‘to do list' which would be tackled through multilateral cooperation with key partners such as the US and exerting greater influence in its own ...More
Video interviews at Obama rally in Berlin: The majority of Germans support Barack Obama for the US presidency, not because they believe he will radically change US policy, but because he is expected to return it to the familiar pre-Bush trajectory.
Berlin's Strasse des 17. Juni, the stretch of road
extending west of the Brandenburg Gate and the location of the victory column
where Barack Obama gave a widely anticipated campaign speech on Thursday, is
often used for mega-events such as public viewing of international football
championships and the Love Parade. Conventional wisdom in the run-up to Obama's
rally held that it would be a similar sort of love parade—a blanket ...More
Thomas Speckmann: Despite plans for a common foreign and security policy, bilateral agreements still largely prevail in Europe when it comes to energy policy. More than ever before, Europe needs a common energy foreign policy. Without this kind of special-interest politics, Europe will remain a tiger without teeth.
Germany, France, Italy, and Austria entertain nationally determined, special relations to Russia and its state owned enterprise Gazprom. The company, which according to Moscow's plans, should soon be one of the largest in the world, has stakes in energy corporations both in old and new member states and in 15 of the pipelines on Europe's periphery.
In spite of the threat of "strategic encirclement" by Russia, Hungary and Bulgaria are contributing ...More
Zaborzka, Casini, Szymanski, Weber: EU member states should unite to offer immediate assistance in the Middle East and especially in the North of Iraq. The establishment of quotas would enable the EU to welcome the most vulnerable Iraqi refugees and prevent another human tragedy in the region.
Germany has taken the initiative to tackle the Iraqi refugee crisis. The German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble proposed to his EU colleagues a plan by which Europe would welcome more Iraqi refugees and the member states would step up aid efforts for the region. So far, the majority of the EU's national ministers and governments have remained silent. Europe cannot ignore and overlook the largest refugee crisis in the Middle East ...More
Wolfgang Ischinger: The transatlantic relationship will benefit from a kind of renaissance when the next US president is elected. Rather than sitting on the sidelines and waiting for US demands, Europe should actively develop strategic initiatives and explain European priorities to the US.
Ambassador Wolfgang Ischinger spoke to the Atlantic Community's partner organization, the World Security Network:
The Atlantic Community editorial team summarized his main arguments from the video interview above:
Ambassador Wolfgang Ischinger has a different view on the transatlantic relationship than most--he's optimistic and believes that "we the Europeans" do not wish to live in disharmony with our American ...More
Ari Rusila: The years to come in the Balkan region cannot be as bleak as those of the recent past. Despite uncertainties regarding developments in Kosovo, the following scenarios offer likely alternatives and demonstrate the region has a future.
The comments I have had here as well in some discussion forums about today's Balkan events and
politics have been quite negative. The core problem from my point of view is Kosovo, because it influences the whole of the Balkan region. In one forum, I was asked the question whether I believe the Balkan region has any future. Yes I do.
The Western Balkans have a future and at least following scenarios can be considered:
“Laissez faire” / frozen ...More
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