2015-03-18 by Richard Weitz On March 10, Russia ended its participation in the Joint Consultative Group of the Treaty of Conventional Armed Forces in Europe. Moscow’s decision effectively formalizes Russia’s lack of interest in working within the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty, and deepens concerns that the Kremlin will…
2015-03-06 By Harald Malmgren An historic February confrontation between the newly elected Syriza-led Greek government and the EU Commission, ECB, and IMF was averted by an ambiguous agreement to sort out differences over the period March to June. Initially, it appeared that Eurozone governments, led by German Finance Minister Schauble,…
2015-03-05 By Robbin Laird Recently, the Centro Studi Internazionali based in Rome published a report by Marco di Liddo and Gabriele Iacovino on Libya and the fluid situation in the country. Obviously, the general situation involving ISIL in the region, Egyptian reactions and the general dynamics of the region feed…
2015-03-11 With the return of direct defense considerations for the Balts and the Nordics, key states like Sweden are rethinking their approach to defense. In an interview in Copenhagen last year with Hans Tino Hansen, the founder and CEO of Risk Intelligence, the shift was the focus of attention: Question:…
2015-03-09 The Dutch have been an important contributor to working with the NATO and Arab partners in trying to role back the ISIS threat and to help in the stabilization of Iraq. On the Dutch Ministry of Defense website are a number of updates on Dutch engagements in the operations.…
2015-03-09 By Stephen Blank One year after the Russian occupation of Crimea we are beginning to see the see some of the consequences of the militarization of Russian policy. It is not an aberration but part of a larger policy.[i] The most recent examples of an expanded policy into the Mediterranean…
2015-03-07 The US and Japan are reworking their defense relationship. Australia and Japan are reworking their defense relationship. Now the UK and Japan are building one. The first UK-Japanese foreign and defense ministerial meetings were held in January 2015 in Tokyo. According to a story on the UK government website…
2015-02-28 By Ed Timperlake Ireland is a nation that has experienced great joy in celebrating the written word along with great sadness and tragedy during their many times of trouble. The Irish love of poetry and music is in their human essence as is a feistiness and undaunted courage about…