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Robert Kagan's thesis "Americans are from Mars and Europeans are from Venus" was not based on transatlantic disagreements in the Bush era, but described developments that became already evident during the Clinton administration. The trend continues during the Obama presidency, even though Obama is often described as very "European."

Germany's Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle insists on the removal of America's last remaining nuclear weapons from German territory. At the Munich Security Conference, he called them "a relic of the Cold War. They no longer serve a military purpose." According to Spiegel (in German) he also co-authored with his Norwegian, Dutch, Belgian and Luxembourg counterparts a letter to NATO's Secretary General suggesting that NATO needs to discuss how to come closer to creating a world free of nuclear weapons.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, however, stressed at the NATO Strategic Concept Seminar on Monday that the Alliance needs to "invest in deterrence, nuclear deterrence as well as missile defense" and expressed her concern about the current debate in Europe.

Continue reading "Is NATO Threatened by Diverging Priorities of its Members?"

Joerg Wolf: The United States and some of its European partners seem to have increasingly different policy priorities. Should NATO members support the surge in Afghanistan and increase their defense budgets? Or should NATO focus on nuclear disarmament?

Robert Hutchings: The globalised economy and the rise of new economic giants demand a radically reformed international system. But it will nevertheless fall to Europe and America to fashion these new structures for global governance.

While the Dutch government broke up over the war in Afghanistan, the Danish establishment seems to be very unified and serves as "an unlikely example of how to maintain public support for the war" writes the Wall Street Journal (HT: Atlantic Community):

"The key to sustaining public support is an elite consensus that includes politicians in government and opposition as well as key opinion leaders: influential intellectuals, academics and columnists," says Dr. Peter Viggo Jakobsen, a security expert at the University of Copenhagen. (.) 

Mr. Gade, a former Danish army officer [who has led Danish efforts to maintain public support], said a key to winning the public was giving reporters deep access to soldiers, who were allowed to talk. When troops say, " 'We did a job and we did it good, and it is worth doing,' then it is very hard indeed for a lot of people to oppose, because those are the men and women who risk their lives," he said.

The article, however, also points out that recently there have been cracks in the coalition and a fall in opinion polls, with, for instance, a major newspaper withdrawing its support.

Joerg Wolf: The United States and some of its European partners seem to have increasingly different policy priorities. Should NATO members support the surge in Afghanistan and increase their defense budgets? Or should NATO focus on nuclear disarmament?

Ed Burke: Spain cannot avoid the incoming fight in its Area of Responsibility in Afghanistan and should resource the mission properly. The Spanish responsibility to link the southern and western parts of Afghanistan to the north remains essential in the fight against the insurgency.

Interview with Jimmy Wales: The founder of Wikipedia discusses the importance of websites like Atlantic Community where people come together to create solutions for how to make the world a better place. The key to constructive online debates is to amplify the more moderate voices.

Osama Bin Javaid: The current Western involvement in Afghanistan and Pakistan is only embedding deeper extremism. Let real democracy develop, as opposed to Karzai's version, allow the Taliban to run and win elections. Empowering and educating the Afghan masses are the only ways out of NATO's disarray.

Michael Patrick McCarthy: The EU and the United States are both taking proper steps in their relationship with Syria. While they have some differing interests in the Middle East, both Western strategies could work more successfully if they worked more closely to support each other's diplomacy with Syria.

It is a rather late stage in the game for the war effort in Afghanistan to claim its first political victim. But yesterday night the Dutch governing coalition broke up over the question of extending its mandate. And that less than a week after narrowly surviving a debate over the (purely symbolic) support for the war in Iraq back in 2003. The political process has its own pace in the Netherlands.

The Guardian has a quote:

"A plan was agreed to when our soldiers went to Afghanistan," said the Labour leader, Wouter Bos. "Our partners in the government didn't want to stick to that plan, and on the basis of their refusal we have decided to resign from this government."

Bos is pretending that the Dutch did their turn and will now have accomplished a virtuous task when they go home. His coalition partners, in turn, are pretending that their plans and conditions were ever intended to have consequences. The political process has its own rationality in the Netherlands.