The sudden assertion of human criteria within a dehumanising framework of political manipulation can be like a flash of lightning illuminating a dark landscape
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european securityAs the European Union enlarges, the continent as a whole - from Madrid to Moscow and Istanbul - is shadowed by terrorism. Richard Torne assesses the political fallout of a civilian massacre on a traumatised Spain. James Appathurai, a leading NATO policy official, argues that the Euro-Atlantic community now needs a confident Europe, in which Russia is a key partner, to share responsibility with the United States in meeting post-9/11 challenges.
United States military systems in Poland and the Czech Republic will provoke a new arms race
Afghanistan's hope of progress and security is withering. It's now or never for Europe
Even if it is exonerated of responsibility for the pre-election Madrid massacre, the militant Basque group that has waged a thirty-six year struggle against the Spanish state faces a difficult future. Read the rest of this post...
The real challenge of terrorism is to the quality of Europe's democracy. A response fueled by unchecked power can become fuel for a global civil war. There is, there must be, a better way. Read the rest of this post...
The defeat of the ruling party in the Spanish elections three days after the attacks in Madrid on 11 March marks an extraordinary and unexpected turnaround. A founder of “El Pais”, Spain’s premier national newspaper, assesses the reasons for the government’s defeat and looks to the future of democracy in Europe. Read the rest of this post...
The implications of the "11-M" bombings go far beyond the Madrid carnage.
In the heart of Europe, coordinated security failed to detect the
coordination of terror. The impact on Washington’s wider war will be
substantial.
The Madrid bombings have taught us a powerful lesson: the ‘war on terror’ plays into the hands of its enemies. Politicians must learn to be modest in the face of those who perpetrate “jihad”. Read the rest of this post...
The death of 200 people in Spain’s worst-ever terrorist attack is a landmark in the country’s politics as well as its modern history. After three days of national mourning and the 14 March general elections, the new government will face the task of articulating a coherent political programme in a time of national trauma. Read the rest of this post...
The unofficial pact between Russia’s parliament and its business ‘oligarchs’ has been an important element in the country’s recent political stability and economic progress. Now, Russia’s president Vladimir Putin is targeting executives of the giant Yukos oil corporation – including its ambitious head, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, interviewed here. Are both pact and progress now at risk? Read the rest of this post...
The slogan ‘No to war: No to Saddam!’ leaves the world polarised and incapable of concerted action. What would it take to reconfigure this crippling divide so that a clear choice helps the world move forward? Could the European Union’s foreign policy coordinator, Javier Solana, lead the way? Read the rest of this post...
The political-military environment of European states has been transformed by post-cold-war developments. A leading Nato policy official says that the Euro–Atlantic community now needs a confident Europe, in which Russia is a key partner, to take a more equal share of responsibility with the United States in meeting new challenges. Read the rest of this post...
The European movement has allowed economic and social interests to blur the wider aims of its founders, greatly reducing the influence of the EU in the world and dampening public enthusiasm for the EU project. Read the rest of this post...
So far the European project has involved precisely what Bourdieu deplores - namely governments progressively divesting themselves of 'the power to control economic forces'. Read the rest of this post...
As a special convention on the EU’s constitutional future opens in Brussels, Reinhard Hesse argues that an active, cohesive European foreign policy is essential. The successful launch of the Euro is its own lesson: we can see Europe with fresh eyes. Read the rest of this post...
Why should the EU hugely increase its military capacities in order to argue for a non-military solution? Read the rest of this post...
The long-term trends in transatlantic relations are towards equality. After 11 September, will they be set back by an intensification of the unilateralism of Bush’s first year? Or will current, necessary coalition-building become the harbinger of a progressive renewal? Read the rest of this post...
In the aftermath of 11 September, the world has focused on America’s diplomatic and military response. Before, other security issues – missile defence, the Balkans and the future of NATO – dominated the headlines. How will this agenda appear when it re-emerges from the smoke of battle? Read the rest of this post...
In the perspective of history, George W Bush’s programme for Europe is flawed, Judith Herrin argues. Byzantine reality, not classical rhetoric, is the indispensable resource for modern understanding of the European Union’s responsibilities to its citizens and neighbours.
The US president’s transatlantic visit was marked by a major speech in Warsaw about Europe’s identity and expansion. In these extracts, George Bush challenges the “false lines” that still divide the continent, and articulates his vision of Nato enlargement to the borders of Russia. Read the rest of this post...
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