Section: The American Interest (USA)
Scrooged: Can NATO Be Fixed?
The current NATO ministerial in Brussels is taking place at a time when rhetoric and reality on the future of the alliance remain disconnected. U.S. and NATO leaders have been issuing condemnations of Russia’s actions in Ukraine and warnings not to try to intimidate the alliance members along the northeastern flank; the conclusions they...
Europe’s Immigration Consensus Fraying Badly
Migrants hiding in the back of trucks in Calais. © Getty Images In the ever-escalating war of words over immigration in the European Union, Hungary has taken a series of decisive steps. Bloomberg: The government halted its participation in the Dublin Agreement, which governs the transfer of refugees within the European Union, according to a...
NATO Spending to Decline in 2015 Despite Russian Threat
The Russian threat to Europe hasn’t been as stark as it is now since the end of the Cold War. Yet despite the ongoing invasion of Ukraine and the looming threat to the Baltic states, overall NATO spending declined last year, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced yesterday. In a speech reported by the Atlantic Council, he noted that:...
Russia Expands Another Pipeline
Today’s a big day for Russian gas pipeline news. Reuters: Russian gas giant Gazprom has agreed to build a new pipeline to Germany under the Baltic Sea with a trio of Western energy companies, bringing Europe closer into Moscow’s energy orbit.The Russian gas company is trying to find new ways to deliver gas to Europe bypassing...
Chinese Banks Closed For Russian Business
Here’s still more evidence that at least the financial part of the sanctions on Russia is having an effect: Yuri Soloviev, the deputy chairman of VTB, Russia’s second largest lender, wrote an op-ed to complain about how Chinese financial firms are declining to work with their Russian counterparts these days. In his piece in Finance...
EU to Russia: Sanctions Stay in Place
With little fanfare, Europe managed to extended its sanctions on Russia through the end of January. Reuters: The six-month extension was agreed by ambassadors from the 28 EU nations meeting in Brussels.Ratification of the decision by EU foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg on Monday is expected to be a formality. The procedure means there will...
How Likely Is Greece’s Default?
While Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was trading barbs with his European counterparts, the Greek Central Bank issued a report urging him to put politics aside and negotiate a deal that, by the central bank’s lights, was very much within reach. The Wall Street Journal: “Failure to reach an agreement would… mark the beginning of a...
US to Arm E. Europe, Moscow Stamps Foot
Reacting to this weekend’s announcement by the United States that it was considering positioning equipment for up to 5,000 troops in the Baltics and surrounding countries, Russia unleashed the mouths of its generals. Reuters: “If heavy U.S. military equipment, including tanks, artillery batteries and other equipment really does turn up in...
Russian Companies Easily Skirting EU Sanctions
With a vote on extending EU sanctions on Russia due by the end of the month (and expected to pass), anecdotal evidence from employees working in companies still doing business in Russia suggests the sanctions regime is much more porous than the media has reported. One of the more popular techniques of sanctions-skirting involves Russian companies...
Playing with Fire
When UK Prime Minister David Cameron set out on his tour of the Continent late last month, the European leaders who received him likely knew what he was going to tell them: that the clock was ticking on Britain’s EU membership, and that the choice the British people will make a couple of years from now depends on them. Indeed UK Foreign...
