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Open Think Tank Articles
Editorial Team: At the culmination of atlantic-community.org’s policy workshop competition, the winners Stephanie Baulig, Geoffrey Levin, and Samuel Erickson discussed their team’s policy recommendations with Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister of Defense Christian Schmidt and US Ambassador Philip D. Murphy.
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Ilija Djugumanov: Only a year and a half since the New Strategic Concept was adopted, NATO has many challenges to deal with. As the global situation changes, so do the priorities of the Alliance. In light of the situation, where exactly are the Balkans on NATO’s agenda?
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Niall Mulchinock: In response to Lord West’s comments branding Denmark and Belgium as second-rate countries while insisting that Britain will continue to remain a major power, despite its defense cuts, it is necessary to signify the important role that Denmark plays in regards to its continued commitment to transatlantic security.
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Karsten M. Jung: Sixty years after its foundation, the aspirations of the Arab Spring show that NATO’s values are as relevant as they have ever been. Events in the Middle East also indicate, however, that the Alliance’s role in their pursuit has to change from merely defending to actively promoting these values.
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Editorial Team: Ahead of the East Asia and ASEAN Summits, our next theme week will examine European foreign policy in the Pacific in light of Hillary Clinton’s recent outline of US policy goals in the region. You tell us: what role should Europe play in America’s Pacific Century?
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John C. Kornblum: European leaders should propose a new initiative for “crisis dialogue” with a broad agenda for a new Atlanticism. What Americans want is a sense of strategic consensus and a willingness to take political risks in support of joint interests. Open dialogue can lead to new strategic unity.
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Greg Randolph Lawson: The world does not need relics of a bygone era. It needs a robust security architecture capable of confronting the unique circumstances of different regions in ways most suitable to each. It is time to embrace a security architecture based on regionalism, not pretensions to universalism.
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Dustin Dehez: When President Barack Obama addressed the nation to explain what he hoped the United States would achieve in Libya, he noted: “Some nations may be able to turn a blind eye to atrocities in other countries…” Some nations, it appears, no longer only applies to China and Russia but also to Germany.
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Benjamin Hanke: Germany’s economic interests are the key obstacle to a closer link between Russia and the West. Berlin is following an appeasement policy towards Moscow due to a need for energy. What Germany needs to do is to revive its European vision and spearhead a common EU approach to Moscow.
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Lukas Linsi and Mustafa Kutlay: It is quite clear that US-EU relations are far from being satisfactory. More worrying than the cooling down of transatlantic relations in itself, however, is the fact that it is the result of an absence of clear vision and political will on both sides of the Atlantic.
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Djörn Eversteijn: NATO’s new strategic concept should define the alliance’s role in responding to 21st century security threats, while acknowledging that the organisation’s capacities are limited. NATO needs to prioritize and address the so called “desolidarisation” within the alliance, while also reinforcing public support, especially amongst the younger generations.
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Jonathan Laurence: A slew of recent arrests of US citizens plotting terrorist attacks has shattered the notion that American multiculturalism and upward mobility is somehow enough to deter extremism. US-EU counter-terrorism efforts must now accept the reality of the threat of home-grown terrorism on both sides of the Atlantic.
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Jackson Janes: In order to maintain its relevancy, NATO must convince the world that is as important now as it was 60 years ago. To to this, NATO should re-affirm its commitment to collective defense within a twenty-first century security context, properly resource deployments, and more equally share burdens.
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Robert Hutchings: The globalised economy and the rise of new economic giants demand a radically reformed international system. But it will nevertheless fall to Europe and America to fashion these new structures for global governance.
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Russell Miller: American alarm over Jens Soering’s possible release from a German prison misunderstands Germany’s legal commitment to human dignity.
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Editorial Team: US President Barack Obama discussed some of the most important issues governing transatlantic affairs in his first State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress and the American public.
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André Budick: The EU is often criticized for its apparent deficit in formulating a coherent foreign and security policy. Yet, that ‘deficit’ really lies at the heart of the EU’s identity as a transnational entity, outside the norms of conventional thinking on International Relations.
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Matthew Yglesias: US relationships with EU countries have been marred not only by our disastrous military engagements but also by a lack of actual diplomacy from the Bush administration. A return to the hallmarks of a liberal society coupled with the simple measure of common courtesy would go a long way.
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Strobe Talbott: President-elect Obama faces a host of short term crises. Long-term issues, though, such as climate change and nuclear proliferation must be at the top of his agenda. To tackle these challenges he has to recognize these priorities and act quickly together with allies—above all Europe.
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Nikolas Kirrill Gvosdev: Obama will move with regard to matters of detention and climate change in a direction, favoring European interests. However, bridging the transatlantic gap is not definite. With the US economy in danger there is little scope to make dramatic policy shifts. Europe must speak clearly, so that both partners can converge again.
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From the Editorial Team: We spent the election night at a number of parties throughout Berlin. In light of the blithe atmosphere surrounding these events, we decided to ask fellow revelers a few questions regarding their election thoughts.
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Interview with Charles Kupchan: Europe is the United States’ best partner. An Obama administration will work hard towards a renewal of transatlantic relations and pursue a more liberal internationalist agenda, but also ask Europe for greater assistance.
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Daniel Korski: While it is likely that transatlantic relations will improve after a new US president is elected, there are still major unsolved issues that are bound to cause disappointment on both sides. Striving for common policies on key issues like Afghanistan, Russia, and China should be a priority.
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Matthew Derek Crosston: The West needs some serious balance in the way it analyzes and discusses the Georgian conflict. Academics, diplomats, and journalists have come forward with a united response to Ossetia: Russia is showing ‘imperialist ambitions’ and ‘a disproportionate reaction.’ This is ridiculous.
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Nikolas Kirrill Gvosdev: Despite the proclaimed cooperative approach, Franco-American tensions could grow bigger than under Chirac. Sarkozy’s Euro-Atlantic, yet independent, foreign policy moves could well be at odds with the next US president’s understanding of multilateralism.
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Jan Techau: Europe’s approach to the US will be decisive for the future of transatlantic relations. Though Bush will leave, the US will not be in a position to radically change its foreign policy. It is time for Europeans to become more American and acknowledge that the era of justifiable disagreement with America is over.
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C. Deblock & M. Rioux: Canadians want to develop closer economic ties with Europe in order to reduce their dependence on the United States. However this new “European” policy is motivated by the wrong reasons and political and structural differences could prove insurmountable.
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Lukas Vitalijus: Going-in-Between in Order to Survive
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Ambassador Victoria Nuland: “Europe needs, the United States needs, NATO needs, the democratic world needs – a stronger, more capable European defense capacity.”
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Eberhard Sandschneider: The conference from the German Marshall Fund closes a strategic gap between Davos and Munich. The transatlantic discussion forum should improve relations between Europe and the United States.
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Global Must Read Articles
Dr. Arunas Molis has been a member of atlantic-community.org since 2009 and works as an associated professor at Vytautas Magnus University and lector at Vilnius University. His range of expertise includes energy security, international relations, European integration and the Baltic States. Before moving to Lithuania, Dr. Molis was affiliated with the Department of Political and strategic studies
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Nina Hachigian is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, and co-author of The Next American Century: How the U.S. Can Thrive as Other Powers Rise.
Ms. Hachigian’s research interests include great power relationships, international institutions, the US-China relationship, and US foreign policy. She has published essays in Foreign Affairs, The Washington Quarterly,
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President Obama will shortly meet NATO and EU leaders in Lisbon where he will be presented with urgent, complex challenges. ++ There are a number of things that need to be made clear. ++ An unambiguous determination to prevail in Afghanistan. ++ A reaffirmation of Europe’s centrality in US global strategy and the reestablishment of a “greater Europe” concept including Georgia and Ukraine. ++
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The United States’ rising debt runs the risk of creating a security threat for Europe. ++ “Should [Europe] continue to rely on the US? Should it bolster its armed forces to become self-reliant? Or should it seek out a new security partnership – perhaps a grand bargain with Russia or even with Middle Eastern states opposed to both Israel and the US?” ++ Since no
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US President Obama has stepped up his rhetoric against BP in recent weeks, calling for criminal investigations and increasing efforts to remove the statutory cap on the company’s liability. ++ “Given the extraordinary importance of BP for the UK stock market, the stakes are huge, and the row might easily open a rift between Mr Obama, no instinctive admirer of the British to begin
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“It is an inescapable reality that almost all of today’s great challenges lie outside the traditional NATO relationship, and many are in areas where US and European views have long diverged.” ++ Nevertheless, there remain many areas where US-European cooperation are both desirable and necessary. ++ As the balance of power shifts from West to East, the US and Europe should focus their energies
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The myth of Britain’s “special relationship” with the US has finally been exposed. ++ Nowadays, the term conjures up images of a United Kingdom subservient to the wishes of Washington and is highly damaging to the reputation and interests of the UK. ++ The House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee has called for the UK to be more assertive and willing to say no to Washington. ++ The Obama
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French President Nicolas Sarkozy made it clear in 2007 that he was “A friend of America,” as he sought to repair damage to a transatlantic relationship that has deteriorated as a result of the Iraq war. ++ More recently, Sarkozy has aggressively courted Obama’s favor but thus far has failed to establish a close working relationship with the American President. ++ “Obama hasn’t seemed to take
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President Obama thus far has failed to strengthen relationships with historic allies, focusing instead on a fruitless search for improved relations with adversaries. ++ “This administration pays lip-service to ‘multilateralism,’ but it is a multilateralism of accommodating autocratic rivals, not of solidifying relations with longtime democratic allies.” ++ In doing so, he departs from a 60
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The United States and Europe urgently need to reconsider their relationship. There is room for redefining and improving the nature of relations across the Atlantic. Both the United States and Europe should make use of existing opportunities to recast the transatlantic partnership. Action on the following ten topics would greatly strengthen transatlantic ties:
A transatlantic solidarity pledge:
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The Obama presidency has left many in Europe disappointed. ++ The post-Bush euphoria has slowly given way to the sobering reality that Europe is not high on Obama’s list of priorities. ++ “The great struggles of the Cold War, which bound Europe and the United States, did not mark Obama, whose intellect and priorities were shaped by globalization.” ++ In order to become a more
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The time has finally come to invite Russia to join NATO. ++ “Trans-Atlantic security needs have changed fundamentally in the last two decades. The East-West confrontation has ended, and Moscow now shares many interests with NATO.” ++ In this context, the inclusion of Russia in the organization would mark the “logical consummation” of a Euro-Atlantic security order of which
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The pacification of Europe, the great geo-political feat of the 20th century, has left the continent neutered and incapable of projecting sufficient hard power. ++ A risk-averse Europe that relies too heavily on soft power as a means of influence will find it difficult to carve out a niche for itself on the global stage. ++ China, India, and Brazil ”do not take Europe seriously, at least not in
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“An inward-focused continent in danger of being left behind.” ++ Europe will be doomed to irrelevancy unless it corrects its geo-political approach in three strategic areas: Islam, Asia, and the transatlantic partnership. ++ By showing “moral cowardice” on the Israel-Palestine conflict, Europe risks further alienating its growing Islamic population. ++ Also, by remaining “obsessed” with the
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The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) today represents the strongest military and political alliance in the world. Its member states on both sides of the Atlantic are situated in the planet’s best developed areas, in terms of social modernization and political democratization, technological advancement, economic prosperity and productivity. The 900 million people living in North America
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Jonathan Laurence is a Transatlantic Academy fellow at the German Marshall Fund, non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and an assistant
professor of political science at Boston College. He has received his Ph.D. (2006) and M.A. (2003) from Harvard University’s department of government. See www.jonathanlaurence.net for
more info.
1.
What are your main priorities at
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A switch is occurring in US-Polish relations. ++ With two wars and the unpopular missile defense proposal, the US is increasingly seen as an uncomfortable, rather than essential security partner. ++ Public opinion is turning to the more cozy neighbor, the EU. ++ Still, this may very well be the strength of new relations with the US, if Poland learns to market its agenda to resonate with the
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Secretary of State Clinton’s European trip set out the seriousness of the Obama administration’s commitment and marked a new era of transatlantic relations. ++ The tête à tête between Clinton and Lavrov — symbolized by a button representing the resetting of soured relations given to the Russian Foreign Minister — confirmed that both countries want to cooperate on the Iranian,
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Sarkozy’s decision to rejoin NATO’s military command is the wrong response to the new era Obama has ushered in. ++ NATO remains an organization designed for the Cold War era without the legitimacy to take on a universal role. ++ Sarkozy is sending out a signal that France wishes to remain part of the “western family,” locked in a defensive mindset of yesteryear. ++
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Nothing upsets the British diplomatic core more than a threat to their half-century old “special relationship” with the US. ++ UK FM Miliband dashed to Washington yesterday to beat the French and Germans in the race to be the first to meet Sec. of State Clinton. ++ Clinton’s first foreign trip is to China, Japan and South Korea, much to the quiet indignance of the British. ++
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Iraq has only confirmed the souring of German-US relations. ++ The golden years of friendship following WW2, characterized by the Marshall Plan and lasting until German reunification, seem distant. ++ Even Obama does not appear to have Germany as a priority: “that’s a pity. Germany is important to the US right now.” ++ A strong Europe is indispensable to help the US recover from the current
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There can be little doubt that Obama will work hard to remove the bitter taste which his predecessor left in European mouths and embrace the continent in dialog. ++ Making this a successful reality is the responsibility of Europe. ++ It must overcome its penchant for disunion, it must not allow itself to be hindered by its more fainthearted members and it must proactively enter discussions over
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Under Bush, relations between Europe and the US have been tense, with disagreements causing concerns of a break up of the special transatlantic partnership. ++ Pessimism seems to be persisting, despite the coming of a new President. ++ However, the situation might not be as grim as all that. ++ Under Obama, the alliance can be revived if new realities are accepted, if the US gives Europe more
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“Old” and “new” Europe parallel the blue and red state split in the US. ++ In old (western) Europe Obama is viewed as a “ray of hope;” new (central and eastern) Europe raises the question, “Who is Obama?” ++ This can be attributed to a difference in threat perceptions. ++ Nowhere is this exemplified more than in Germany. ++ There, a proto-Kantian
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In times when there is no overbearing enemy, the transatlantic alliance is challenged by the geopolitical interests of each partner, which differ from one another. ++ For instance, the EU needs good relations with Russia and the Muslim world because they border on its territory and supply its energy demands, but these protagonists oppose the US hegemonic global pretensions. ++ Balancing the
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The idea of a common European defense policy has hardly made any progress since its inception, but there are some lessons to be learned from the past: spending needs to be sensible and all countries need to pool their resources, even if there are variations in defense culture. ++ Furthermore, a better shared understanding of where European interests and values may require interventions is
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With the exception of Germany, all major European goverments seek out US leadership on global issues. ++ Merkel remains inflexible regarding enlarging the NATO contingent in Afghanistan and adopts an indulgent approach to Russia which is only surpassed by Schroeder and Steinmeier’s disturbingly close ties to the Kremlin. ++ Since Russia tries to divide the West through Germany: “Any American
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Obama enjoys astonishing and unprecedented support in Europe. ++ The anti-Americanism fueled by Bush may have subsided, but this international popularity is not necessarily beneficial for a candidate who primarily needs to convince the electorate at home. ++ Europeans would be wise to lower their expectations: “once a President Obama engages with America’s allies, he will also expect them to
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Most people overlook that it was not one man alone who widened the gap between the two sides of the Atlantic, and that the bogeyman Bush often either approved or facilitated Europe’s own decisions. ++ The dramatic transformation of the United States has been more accompanied by Bush than promoted by him. ++ With or without Bush, transatlantic relations would necessarily have shaped America’s
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Whereas Europeans believe strong national or religious identities are detrimental to democracy, for Americans, expression of identity is a fundamental right. ++ This conflicting understanding of identity and democracy precedes the Bush era and will survive the election of someone new to the White House. ++ As a result of the fundamentalist threat, we are more likely to witness the resurgence of
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On both sides of the Atlantic, politicians are certain that a new US President will mean big change on a broad range of issues, from climate change to Iraq. ++ In gearing up for a more “enlightened” era of transatlantic relations, governments and media have given little attention to Bush’s remaining days in office. ++ Although public opinion in Europe clearly reveals an Obama preference, Berlin,
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Bush’s unilateralism has created a rift in transatlantic relations that is unlikely to be fixed by the next US president, unless the EU and the US share a common threat. ++ McCain frames the authoritarian capitalism of China and Russia as the ideological antipode to liberal democracy. ++ If he were to follow through on his planned League of Democracies and the restructuring of the G8, this would
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UK Foreign Secretary Miliband believes Britain should no longer be “the bridge” speaking for the US in the EU, and in the name of its European neighbors in Washington. ++ Even if the US remains Britain’s most important bilateral partner, Britain belongs to Europe. ++ Strong and trustful transatlantic relations need to be established together with France and Germany rather than unilaterally. ++
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The US market is experiencing the unprecedented inflow of large- and medium-size European investors. ++ Because of the extremely cheap US dollar, it became affordable for many European companies to relocate their production to the much more attractive American market. ++ While there is nothing that can stop this trans-Atlantic shift, it will have an enormous impact on the structure of the
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NATO is threatened by growing protectionism, fear of terrorism, and the loss of faith of Europeans in values and institutions. ++ Its weakness prevents it from reforming. ++ Enlargement would enable promotion of western ideals the world over. ++ Since values override geography, Japan, Australia, and Israel should join now and others should be encouraged to, so as to effect democratic development
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The first territorial war of NATO history in Afghanistan will be the hot topic at the Bucharest Summit. ++ NATO’s credibility seems tied to success in Afghanistan, therefore NATO governments should reach a consensus on new criteria for measuring success and failure. ++ Democratization and stabilization can be difficult to achieve and should not be measured on an all-or-nothing basis.
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The fact that the US and the EU are now responsible for under 30% of world exports indicates a decline of primacy. ++ Discussions held by the elites at the Brussels Forum highlighted the need for a closer transatlantic partnership when dealing with new global “state and nonstate threats”. ++ Internal discord in the EU and the US is hindering the focus on external common interests.
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Currently, NATO’s means are solely military. ++ Yet today’s most urgent task is to prevent crises by eliminating reasons for armed conflict, so force should be the ultimate resort. ++ To avoid becoming a hollow transatlantic alliance, NATO should adopt a global rather than a regional outlook, reinforce collaboration with the politically legitimizing UN, and especially work closer with members of
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William H. Taft and Frances G. Burwell from the Atlantic Council advise the EU and US to coordinate their positions before the ICC review conference in 2009. The transatlantic partners must set an example for the rest of the world.
With the review conference on the International Criminal Court (ICC) coming up in 2009, a concerted transatlantic effort to build global consensus on international
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German Marshall Fund Director of Foreign Policy John K. Glenn testifies before the US House of Representatives subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight, drawing from data and analyses from GMFUS annual report, “Transatlantic Trends.” Glenn reports that though European opinion polls since 2002 have shown consistent decline in favorability towards America, Europeans
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The Euro-Atlantic Partnership lacks an effective venue for cooperative policy discussion. The NATO summit has therefore become the default forum for taking inventory of transatlantic outlooks. Franklin D. Kramer and Simon Serfaty of CSIS suggest a convergence of NATO and European Union member states under a unified “council.” The so-called “Euro-Atlantic Forum” would eliminate what the authors
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