The United States had just gone through a bruising election, but in Congress Democratic and Republican leaders gathered to unveil the bust of Vaclav Havel, the playwright and first post-Communist Czech…
EU in the room: failed high-level diplomacy in Minsk.
Alexey Druzhinin/Ria Novosti/KRE/EPA
As a fragile ceasefire just about holds in Ukraine, with shelling reported in the pivotal port city of Mariupol, the EU has announced a new round of sanctions against Russia. Targeted at state-owned firms…
NATO’s secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen is fond of saying that the alliance must now transform from a “deployed NATO to a prepared NATO”. But given the current crisis to its eastern flank, many…
After the NATO-led interventions in Kosovo and Libya, many commentators argued that the Responsibility to Protect, the fashionable name for humanitarian military intervention, had finally become an established…
People just aren’t that bothered.
EPA/Olivier Hoslet
World leaders are congregating in Wales this week for the 2014 NATO summit, where some of the most pressing political issues of the day will be on the agenda. Despite the high stakes, a survey of the general…
NATO forces board a suspected pirate vessel.
UK Ministry of Defence
As NATO meets in Wales, the public’s attention is bound to be on how the organisation will handle the conflict in Ukraine. But the meeting is also an important window of opportunity to develop a long term…
The changing face of security threats.
Vincent Diamante
Jamie Shea, London School of Economics and Political Science
Late one Saturday evening in March, NATO’s Headquarters experienced a large-scale cyber-attack at the hands of a group calling itself Anonymous Bierkut from Ukraine. Non-classified networks were targeted…
NATO Baltic air policing mission highlights rising tensions north of Ukraine.
EPA
Anxiety over the crisis in eastern Ukraine has ratcheted in recent days amid claims of an effective Russian invasion, and warnings of NATO making a 4000-troop reaction force available to the region. As…
David Cameron and Anders Fogh Rasmussen have a plan.
Luke MacGregor/PA Wire/Press Association Images
NATO member states are meeting this week in Wales at what could prove a milestone summit. Since the 2012 Chicago meeting, the security landscape has changed dramatically and important questions about NATO’s…
Celtic Manor welcomes careful drivers and diplomatic debaters.
Joe Giddens/PA Wire/Press Association Images
World leaders are beginning to converge on Newport in Wales for two days to reflect on NATO’s aims and objectives, ahead of the organisation’s main summit on Thursday and Friday. While in Wales, they’ll…
A steely welcome to the valleys.
Joe Giddens/PA Wire/Press Association Images
The 28 nations of NATO, each dedicated to “safeguarding the freedom and security of its members through political and military means” are about to descend on South Wales. The impact of preparing for the…
On July 31, while it remained unclear exactly how directly involved in the Ukrainian crisis Russia is, the British media ominously reported that Nato had been deemed unready to fight a war with Russia…
Built in France for Russia – the Mistral class warship.
EPA/Franck Dubray/Ouest France
When it comes to politics, there is a generally held belief that when it is working, it is boring. Europe’s foreign policy politics routinely breaks this axiom because while it can rarely said to be working…
The Russian response to what Moscow perceives as its three main security challenges – Western enlargement, China and terrorism/separatism in the Caucasus – has been expansionism. First in Abkhazia in 2008…
Shake? Please? NATO Secretary General Rasmussen (l) visits Romania.
EPA/Robert Ghement
The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), once again saved from potential irrelevance, has come to the fore in the West’s reaction to the Ukraine crisis. In the aftermath of its withdrawal from Afghanistan…
Wheels in motion. EU seeks out sanctions in response to Ukraine crisis.
Robert Ghement
The current stand-off between Russia and Ukraine has left the European Union looking perhaps flatfooted and ineffectual. It is an unfair reflection of reality. The EU is not a military alliance and so…
Too close for comfort? Narva Bridge on Estonia’s Russian border
Hannu
The Russian invasion and rapid absorption of the Crimean peninsula might seem like the spark ready to ignite a new Cold War. In fact, given the feeble Western response so far, the more likely outcome is…
The gains made over the past 13 years may be squandered if the troop withdrawal also marks an end to any serious engagement with the country.
United Nations Photo
Afghanistan has a special place in the history of international relations, having tested and endorsed many international power equations over the years. But given the imminent troop withdrawal, serious…
Syrian government forces during an operation in Aleppo.
SANA
The exchange of artillery fire between Turkish and Syrian forces over the past few days has seen a renewed focus on the possibility of an escalating war between Damascus and Ankara. It seems that not since…
NATO forces won’t work with Afghans… so what’s the point?
EPA/Jalil Rezayee
On Tuesday 18 September, at the direction of the United States military command in Afghanistan, deputy commander of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), Lieutenant General James…