Afghan-Pakistan Border Incidents: The Underlying Problem

11/29/2011
11/27/2011 By Richard Weitz Pakistan and the United States have experienced their most serious incident along the Afghan-Pak border. According to Pakistani sources, confirmed by NATO, U.S. helicopters acting as part of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan attacked a military checkpoint in northwest Pakistan on Saturday, killing…

NATO’s Tactical Nuclear Dilemmas

06/12/2011
By Richard Weitz 06/12/2011 - The role of nuclear weapons in NATO’s defense and deterrence policies is clearly declining. The alliance’s Strategic Concept adopted last November clearly states that NATO will retain nuclear weapons as long as they exist, and that NATO wants its nuclear deterrent to be credible and…

Allies Struggle to Implement NATO’s Lisbon Summit Decisions

06/07/2011
By Dr. Richard Weitz 06/07/2011 - The attendees of the November 19-20, 2010 NATO Lisbon summits (among the NATO heads of state alone and their subsequent meeting with President Dmitry Medvedev within the framework of the NATO-Russia Council) faced two independent BMD decisions: (1) whether NATO would agree to integrate…

Romanian and French Army Advise Afghan National Army

04/01/2011
04/01/2011 - French Army Capt. Michel Bastelica, from Corsica, and Afghan National Army basic warrior training instructor shakes hands with a student during class in Kabul Military Training Center Jan. 12. Mentors from many different countries play a critical role supporting NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan in sites throughout Afghanistan. [slidepress gallery='romanian-and-french-army-advise-afghan-national-army']…

The Afghan Drug Challenge

12/19/2010
A Russian Perspective By Dr. Richard Weitz and Dmitri Titoff, October 21, 2010 12/21/2010 - Translation provided by Dr. Richard Weitz Q: What accounts for the fact that, since the overthrow of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, the flow of narcotics from that country has increased significantly? Victor P. Ivanov:…

The Future of NATO’s Tactical Nuclear Weapons

12/18/2010
By Dr. Richard Weitz Preparing for the NATO Summit (Credit: NATO) 12/21/2010 - One of the most important issues that NATO Heads of State addressed at their November 2010 Summit in Lisbon was what to do about the remaining U.S. tactical nuclear weapons (TNWs) stationed in Europe under the alliance’s…

Greece: A Harsh Balancing Act

09/07/2010
The Greek Economic Crisis And Defense Budget Cuts: A Question of Balance By Harry Syringas [email protected] Greece’s economic crisis and recent bailout have called for budget cuts across the board, including in its defense budget. Hence, given the fact that major arm suppliers of Greece, like Germany, demand reduction in…

French Special Forces in Afghanistan: Lessons Learned

11/30/2009
[caption id="attachment_2566" align="alignleft" width="102" caption="Revue Marine November 2009"][/caption] In the current issue of Marine, a quarterly publication by the  French Navy’s Association of Reserve Officers (Association des officiers de réserve de la Marine nationale) a special series of articles on NATO’s involvement in Afghanistan called «Afghanistan: Which Path for the…