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Joerg Wolf: Atlantic-community.org’s editor-in-chief was part of a group of 59 politicians, scholars, and other observers invited to take part in the Atlantic Council and Foreign Policy Magazine’s survey on the future of NATO. Here he explains why he answered the way he did and offers some thoughts about why NATO needs to focus on building capabilities, not proving its relevance.
It was an honor to participate in this survey and a good opportunity for
reflection as well as to think about some big questions. In addition to 28
multiple choice questions, we were asked to complete four sentences and I
believe there is a common theme in my answers:
NATO today is... the best "insurance policy" we have to remain free and
secure, when (not if) we are once again surprised by a new threat.
NATO's biggest ...More
Ahmad Rashid Jamal: Corruption is a severe problem in many Asian countries, especially in Afghanistan and Pakistan. This paper assesses the effectiveness of anti-corruption strategies and accountability in these two countries and asks: Can Anti-corruption Agencies turn into effective organizations?
A distinct and single anti-corruption institution cannot function as an omnipotent and supreme institution. In order to combat and eradicate corruption it is necessary to reform all governmental institutions and make them capable of effectively implementing their mandate and developing coordination and inter linkages among entities. Among underlying theoretical models, monitoring and incentives programs are ...More
Ramin Daniel Rezai: Preparations for the Chicago Summit are well underway, as NATO extends formal invitations to its strategic partners, undertakes pre-summit consultations with its members and sets summit priorities. As the summit approaches, the city of Chicago is putting strict security measures in place.
NATO's 25th summit heads to Chicago on May 20-21. The Summit will deliver on decisions that were taken at last year’s summit in Lisbon, as well as set the course for future engagement in Afghanistan and look to adopt a new culture of cooperation among NATO member and partner countries. The following article provides a round-up of commentary and current news stories related to the upcoming event.
Partner Countries are Key
The upcoming ...More
NATO: More than half the casualties among the NATO forces in Afghanistan in 2011 were caused by improvised explosive devices (IED). This is also the case for one in three Afghans killed last year. In 2010, NATO adopted an action plan on counter-IED (C-IED) aimed at increasing the detection and neutralization of such devices, as well as the dismantling of the networks that manufacture them.
The NATO C3 Agency (NC3A) is responsible for developing those advanced technologies to combat IEDs. The NC3A has concentrated its efforts in the struggle against IEDs in three main sectors – jammers against radio-controlled IEDs, scanners to inspect vehicles, cargo and pedestrians, and surveillance technologies to improve intelligence on the origins of the IEDs.
"It is difficult to fight these devices," explains Mr. ...More
Josiah Jason Surface: Stability is a desirable outcome for all parties in the Mediterranean Dialogue. This does not mean returning to the failed policies of the past; our Atlantic Memo is rather a roadmap for maintaining a commitment to the burgeoning democratic institutions of the region.
In his rebuttal to the memo Partners in Democracy, Partners in Security: NATO and the Arab Spring, Andrea Teti crafts his argument around the presupposition that instability, while undesirable, is worth enduring so long as the broader ideals of democracy can be achieved in Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Teti puts forward this argument because he concludes that the policy recommendations presented in Partners in ...More
Andrea Teti: Western governments need to recognize that authoritarian regimes are often fierce but not strong; that privatization is rarely the road to liberalization, much less democratization; and that Islamism was as wrong-footed by the uprisings as they were.
Atlantic Memo 39 opens by pointing out that regional instability has been the consequence of uprisings and regime change of one kind or another. That instability is associated with change ought not in itself to be surprising. What is of greater concern is of course that the particular way issues facing new regimes have been dealt with has brought instability. In Egypt, for example, the military junta in power has actively ...More
Vivien Pertusot: Tensions are already emerging between France’s new President and key partners. The potential for early French withdrawal from Afghanistan is one of the issues at the heart of them and has caused concerns in Allied capitals and at NATO. But let’s not exaggerate the issue.
The French presidential campaign was characterized by a quasi-absence of debates on foreign policy. This was hardly a change from previous campaigns; rarely does one gain voters by talking about international affairs.
The only genuine foreign policy issue that had some traction was Afghanistan. François Hollande, early in his campaign, stated that if elected he would pull out all French troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2012, ...More
Jason Naselli: When asked to name the driving force behind liberal democracy in the West, I admit that the Protestant Reformation would not have been my first answer. However, this is the answer of Charles A. Kupchan in his new book No One's World: The West, the Rising Rest, and the Coming Global Turn, and one that he uses to ground his recommendations for how the transatlantic allies should deal with the diffusion of ...More
Editorial Team: The additional articles from the second category of “Your Ideas, Your NATO” have been merged into a single “Your Opinion” piece. A recurring theme was that NATO must build civil-military relations and an intercultural youth dialogue, as well as undertake good governance and rule of law initiatives in order to support the long-term transition process underway in partner countries.
The security of NATO, particularly Mediterranean members, and partners in North Africa are very much intertwined and require specific policies for NATO to assist the transition process in partner countries, while ensuring that there is security and stability in the region. Atlantic-community.org's policy workshop competition already produced an Atlantic Memo addressing these concerns. However, we received many good ideas that could ...More
Gökhan Tekir: The paper analyzes how the Russian Federation uses energy as a foreign policy instrument. Russia’s main aim is to prevent Western interference in its sphere of influence. This is done by maintaining its hegemon position in supplying Caspian energy sources to Europe.
After the dissolution of the USSR, the Russian Federation considered itself as a natural heir to the empire. However, the new state lacked the military power that the Soviet Union once enjoyed. Thus, it tried to use the energy card as a foreign policy instrument. Conflicts in the South Caucasus and Central Asia reflected Russia's concern in maintaining its influence over energy resources.
The effectiveness of playing the energy card depended to a large extent on ...More
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