Europe & Central Asia Archives - Page 207 of 433

Belgrade Faces Indictee Dilemma

by Chris Stephen | Oct 29, 2003

Serbia plunged itself into confrontation with The Hague–and possibly also the international community–this week, by refusing to hand over four former commanders in Kosovo whose indictments were made public on October 20. The four held the rank of colonel-general at the time of their alleged offenses in Kosovo in 1999, while one is now a senior government minister. Former Pristina corps commander Vladimir Lazarevic, the current head of the Serbian interior ministry’s public security department, Sreten Lukic, his predecessor Vlastimir Djordjevic, and former army chief of staff Nebojsa Pavkovic are charged with attacks on villages and ethnic cleansing.

Truth In Spending

by John Gershman, Col. Daniel Smith (Ret.) | Oct 7, 2003

A September 6th New York Times story on Iraq quoted Pentagon spokesperson Bryan G. Whitman as saying: "All known Iraqi munitions sites are being secured by coalition forces."

Afghanistan: In Search of Security

by Mark Sedra | Oct 3, 2003

On May 1, 2003, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, on a visit to Kabul, triumphantly declared that “major combat activity” in Afghanistan was over and that the “the bulk of the country is now secure.” Rumsfeld scoffed at those analysts and critics who dared to challenge this optimistic assessment, derisively labeling them “armchair columnists.” Four months later, on September 7, 2003, during a return trip to Kabul, Secretary Rumsfeld delivered a very different message. He was in the Afghan capital to shore up an increasingly fragile Afghan Transitional Administration (ATA), beset by insecurity and struggling to advance a sputtering reconstruction process.

Are Pressures from the U.S., India, and Israel Too Much for Pakistan’s Nuclear Weapons Program to Withstand?

by Muqtedar Khan | Sep 23, 2003

Pakistan’s national defense strategy centers on protecting the country’s nuclear weapons capability from a threat by one or more of three states that are currently working very closely – the United States, India and Israel. That strategy includes a nuclear first-strike policy.

India, Pakistan Celebrate Independence Day But Not Freedom

by Muqtedar Khan | Aug 16, 2003

On Aug. 14 and 15, the 56th anniversary of the independence of Pakistan and India from British colonial rule, it is a sad commentary on the political condition of South Asia that even though the region has been independent for over half a century, it is still not free.

Time’s Up for Some Foreign Policy Straight Talk from White House

by John Gershman, Col. Daniel Smith (Ret.) | Aug 13, 2003

Blair and Bush Forge a New Special Relationship

by Ian Williams | Jul 27, 2003

Maybe the relationship is more special than we cynics have given credit. Events in Britain seem to be seriously affecting American politics. Americans are promiscuous with their applause. Broadway audiences clap when curtains open, when the set changes, and when the star comes on stage. To give him his due, Tony Blair did refer to the somewhat different reception he could expect back home, when he performed for George W. Bush at the joint session of Congress. One wonders whether the champion of the Third Way noticed that he had fewer allies in the Democratic benches than among the Republicans.

Recycling Wars

by Col. Daniel Smith (Ret.) | Jun 6, 2003

Tell it to the troops on the ground, not to mention the indigenous population. They know that war can go on even after it has “ended.”

United States and Europe Experience Continental Drift

by Peter Howard | May 22, 2003

The distance between the United States and Europe is slowly growing wider–about an inch each year, geologists estimate, due to the expansion of the Atlantic Ocean. Politically, the Atlantic Ocean has been a much less stable barrier between the United States and Europe. The first U.S. president, George Washington, viewed the Atlantic’s vast distance as America’s ultimate protection from the power politics of European monarchs and warned future presidents to avoid entangling alliances. Following World War II, U.S. leaders such as President Harry S. Truman and Secretaries of State George Marshall and Dean Acheson saw Europe and America as part of the same region, the compact North Atlantic, giving rise to the NATO and the Marshall Plan. Most recently, in the diplomacy prior to the Iraq war, a new rift developed between the United States and its European allies, culminating in U.S. recriminations against France and Germany, members of “Old Europe,” effectively blocking any UN authorization for the U.S.- and U.K.-led war. Now that the war is over, how much distance is there between the United States and Europe?

The Forgotten War Shows No Sign of Abating

by Mark Sedra | Apr 1, 2003

Less than an hour before the initial bombs and cruise missiles rained down on Baghdad in the first volleys of the Iraq war, the U.S. military launched a major attack in its other war in Afghanistan. Pentagon spokespersons insisted that the timing of the attack was “a coincidence” and that planning for the operation had been going on for months. However, it seems clear that this escalation of U.S. military activity serves a dual purpose: to assuage the fears of those concerned that the U.S. would lose interest in Afghanistan after the onset of the war in Iraq and to send a clear signal to anti-American forces in Afghanistan and the wider region that the war on terror would not lose momentum. More than anything, though, the operation illustrates that the ongoing war in Afghanistan–involving 11,000 coalition troops, 8,000 of which are American–is far from over.