No easy fixes for NATO
To paraphrase Shakespeare: Alas poor NATO. We knew it well. My second column for 2013 bemoaned the absence of even the mention of NATO--the North Atlantic Treaty Organization--- in the strategic dialogue that accompanied the start of President Barack Obama’s second term. Founded in Washington in April 1949 as a counterweight to the emergence of a hostile Soviet Union, NATO became the most successful military alliance in history. Clearly, the strategic “pivot” to Asia announced last year by the White House had overshadowed and eclipsed the importance of Europe. And, today’s violence in Egypt and Syria as well as the ongoing chaos in Iraq, Afghanistan with Iran’s nuclear ambitions still [...]