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Europe: The travel advisory
U.S. State Department issued last Sunday a Terrorism alert aimed at American citizens traveling or planning to travel in Europe until roughly the end of the year. The alert which urges ‘extra caution’ but ‘does not discourage Americans from visiting Europe’, does not actually mention Europeans. Nonetheless it implicates them massively. The advisory is remarkable… Read more →
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Security and prosperity
The romance of security and economics goes way back, at least in modern times. Historians tell us that before the modern age, security was more akin to peace of mind. It was a spiritual matter and a largely religious one. From around the Feudal period, society’s need for a more objective security became visible, and… Read more →
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We are all Roma!
French officials have declared themselves ‘astonished’ after European Commissioner for Justice and Fundamental Rights, Viviane Reding, described as ‘appalling’ the French practice of mass expulsion of Roma groups from French territory. Reding’s comments were a reaction to a 5 August French internal directive instructing police authorities to target Roma for expulsion. The leaked directive was… Read more →
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Happy Birthday FRONTEX!
This week here in Warsaw, FRONTEX, the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union, celebrates its 5th birthday with a series of high-visibility conferences and events. The events revolve around the solemn proclamation of today, 25 May, as the European Day for… Read more →
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Europe’s new security providers
Here is a riddle. Who or what authority is it that will assure or not assure the sovereignty of Greece and by consequence a number of other European member states in the months and years to come? Well, we can safely say that it will not be President Karolos Papoulias, the current Greek government, or… Read more →
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Van Rompuy’s transatlantic security narrative
European Council President Van Rompuy addressed last week the Brussels Forum of the German Marshal Fund on the subject of transatlantic relations (Transatlantic Responses to Global Insecurity). Evoking the post-War history of the GMF, Van Rompuy used the occasion to reflect on the course of U.S.–Europe relations and, in particular, on the continuity between a… Read more →
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Finance and European identity
Members of the Eurozone, led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicholas Sarokzy agreed on 25 March to coordinate financial support to help Greece face its debt problems. The following day the European Council put its weight behind the agreement, solving, at least for the moment, the Greek debt crisis. The crisis has… Read more →
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What can we ask of a treaty?
The New York Times has recently taken to reporting on the failures of the Lisbon Treaty, manifested by the visible growing pains in the new leadership structures of the European Union (here). To be sure, The Times is hardly alone in noting what seems to be a problem in the implementation of the New Europe.… Read more →
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Ukraine in the heart of Europe
On February 7 the ‘Russia-friendly’ Viktor Yanukovych defeated Yulia Tymoshenko, the liberalizing, Western-leaning co-leader of the Orange Revolution, in the second round of the Ukranian presidential elections. As reported by Reuters: here. A first-cut analysis is straight forward. The European Union, having admitted Bulgaria and Romania on still-flimsy premisses, having held Turkey in limbo and… Read more →
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NATO redux in Paris
In a speech to the French National Military Academy on 29 January US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did her best to press the old wine of 20th Century security thinking into the new bottles of a shifting European security landscape. The speech in its entirety can be found here. The report and analysis from… Read more →
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