International Peace, & Security

Statement before the House of Commons Defence Committee on Future Force 2020

1. It is a great privilege and compliment to appear before this committee.  I have known a number of its distinguished members as well as chairmen from even before Bruce George sat at its head to James Arbuthnot and very much respect your work. 2. As you know, this committee is not vested with the same constitutional authority as the U.S. Congress’s two Armed Services Committees.  That does not mean you cannot and should not play a more important role in the defence debate; exercising oversight; identifying critical issues; and issuing reports such as your excellent study on FF 2020. 3.  As a further postscript, I had the very good [...]

Three big bets to defeat IS

If the civilized world has any chance of defeating the Islamic State (IS) and other Sunni-based terrorist groups, three big bets must pay-off. And winning each bet is not sufficient.  The pay-offs must be sustained for an extended period if this scourge is to be defeated. The first bet is that President Barack Obama has grown in office and has learned from past errors and mistakes. Second is that Secretary of State John Kerry will be given the authority to execute the strategy. And third is that the Iraqi government fully understands that it is in a fight to the death with IS and acts accordingly in reconciling with the [...]

Big ideas needed now

When confronting a big problem, President General of the Army Dwight Eisenhower believed that the best solution could be found by making the problem bigger.  What he meant was that in moving from, in military terms, a tactical to a strategic solution the latter would resolve the former.  This is what President Barack Obama must do as he confronts a world of volatility and uncertainty perhaps unlike any other period in memory. In fact, today could be an inflection point as great or greater than the end of the Cold War or September 11th. The president’s strategic approach is cautious and restrained yet uses often-excessive rhetoric such as announcing a [...]

Summitul NATO şi „Războiul hibrid” al lui Vladimir Putin

Senatorul John McCain, care şi-a manifestat întotdeauna suspiciunea faţă de preşedintele rus Vladimir Putin, a cărui impredictibilitate caracterizează relaţiile internaţionale pe care Federaţia Rusă le are cu UE şi SUA, avertiza că acesta are de mult timp ochii aţintiţi spre Ucraina, pe care o consideră „perla coroanei ruse”: „Ştiu că Putin crede că Ucraina este parte a Rusiei. El este hotărât să o menţină în propria ogradă”. Summitul NATO de la Celtic Manor, lângă Cardiff, Ţara Galilor, este poate cel mai important eveniment la nivelul Alianţei după încheirea Războiului Rece. De ce? În primul rând, pentru că Federaţia Rusă a reinventat Războiul Rece, iar deciziile pe care Alianţa Nord-Atlantică le [...]

Turcia, Crimeea rusă şi Marea Neagră

Cum arată acest capăt de Europă astăzi? Întâlnire de gradul III la Minsk între Vladimir Putin şi Petru Poroşenko! Rezultatul 0-0. În schimb, la Sofia, ministrul de Externe Lavrov bate cu pumnul în masa bulgarilor pentru avansarea proiectului South Stream. Armata ucraineană continuă luptele cu insurgenţii cu rezultate modeste. Rada, Parlamentul ucrainean, a fost dizolvată, urmând alegeri generale parlamentare. Şi totuşi, în toiul conflictului cu Moscova, se votează în Parlamentul de la Kiev o rezoluţie cu privire la datoriile neplătite pentru importurile de gaze. Parlamentarii ucraineni au aprobat o lege care vizează crearea unui operator naţional pentru transportul gazelor, la care investitorii americani şi europeni să poată deţine până la [...]

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