GMF - The German Marshall Fund of the United States - Strengthening Transatlantic Cooperation

BRUSSELS — After a 20-month stalemate, direct Middle East peace talks are about to resume this week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Jordanian King Abdullah, and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak meeting in Washington at the invitation of the Obama administration. The talks are a welcome opportunity to set the peace process back on track, but both parties face serious challenges that will need to be overcome if a positive outcome is to materialize. On the Israeli side, Netanyahu is confronted with a crucial decision on whether to end the 10-month freeze on the construction of … Continue Reading…

The recent leak of classified reports disclosing sensitive information about the military engagement in Afghanistan has once again put Pakistan in the spotlight. While simultaneously suffering from one of the worst floods in recent history, Pakistan is finding itself in a very difficult position. The more than 90,000 documents released by WikiLeaks last month strengthen previous allegations that the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan’s Intelligence Agency, has direct links to the Afghan Taliban. Although analysts have been making these claims for years, the sheer magnitude and timing of the leak have come to exacerbate strains in Pakistan’s relations with its western … Continue Reading…

WASHINGTON — The recent central bankers’ conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, highlighted yet again that there exist yawning transatlantic differences in perspective on the global economic challenge ahead and, more important, what to do about it. This policy debate, with Europeans urging fiscal austerity and Americans promoting continued economic stimulus, has been a sore point for months. Now it is evident that leading European and American economists even disagree on their interpretation of history, with both sides using Japan’s economic stagnation in the 1990s as evidence in support of their preferred course of action today. This debate is not just about what … Continue Reading…

With all what comes out of the international climate negotiations lately, it seems safe to assume that they are stuck. From August 2-6, climate negotiators from around the world met in Bonn to work on the documents to be agreed upon at the 16th Conference of the Parties (COP16) in Cancun at the end of November. The negotiations in Bonn have been perceived as a setback not only by observers but also by the involved parties. EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard stated that the negotiations were going backwards while U.S. top-negotiator Jonathan Pershing expressed his deep concern about … Continue Reading…

As the old C-130 Hercules transport plane took off from Tarin Kowt airfield in Uruzgan, I glimpsed a last view of the province that back in 2001 had witnessed the first Pashtun rebellion against the Taliban. This rugged airstrip was an unlikely place to make history, but it was the same strip that had been built by U.S. Special Forces to fly Hamid Karzai to Kabul in 2002, where a Loya Jirga was awaiting to anoint him president of Afghanistan. I spent only two days in the Forward Operating Base “Kamp Holland” in Uruzgan in 2008, but reading the reports … Continue Reading…

My colleague Niels Annen has given us the benefit of his own extensive experience in Afghanistan to offer a very useful perspective on the Dutch withdrawal. Niels’ concerns about whether the withdrawal signals the unraveling of the coalition in Afghanistan are fully justified. But his use of the phrase “domino theory” is telling in the differences it suggests about Afghanistan and Vietnam, where the original domino theory was applied. The domino theory with respect to Vietnam justified the American war effort on the grounds that, if the United States failed in Vietnam, other countries in the region would fall to communist … Continue Reading…

WASHINGTON, DC — Europe had been waiting patiently for the United States to enact domestic legislation to cut its carbon emissions.  After months of negotiations between the U.S. Congress and utilities, oil companies, and other stakeholders on the details of comprehensive climate and energy legislation, the Senate in late July abandoned hopes of passing such a bill before it entered its August recess. A lack of Republican support meant that even a scaled-down cap-and-trade proposal — covering only utilities — was unlikely to pass. Partisan rancor in the lead-up to mid-term elections and concerns over carbon pricing mean that legislation … Continue Reading…

1999, 2010: these dates mark history in the Balkans. Eleven years ago, NATO waged an air war against Serbia over the treatment of Serbia’s southernmost province. Since then, the longstanding dispute over the status of Kosovo has been conducted through diplomatic and legal wrangling instead. On July 22, the highest court in the UN system, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), ruled that Kosovo’s declaration of independence in February 2008 did not violate international law. As Winston Churchill inimitably said: “jaw-jaw is better than war-war.” But the rulings of the International Court in The Hague are non-binding. So what happens … Continue Reading…

 In my last blog post about the effects of High Speed Rail (HSR) stations on cities in Europe, I discussed the architecture of several notable HSR station buildings that have attracted a great deal of attention in and of themselves.  However, a memorable building alone isn’t sufficient to generate the so-called HSR Effect, which can attract economic growth, tourism, and investment in complimentary local transportation infrastructure such as light rail to cities. For instance, the HSR station at the airport in Lyons, France, designed by Santiago Calatrava, is a beautiful building, with an innovative curved black ‘wing’ rising from the terminal. … Continue Reading…

KABUL—“We have moved from a narrative, which lasted for years, that everything was fine when it wasn’t to a narrative that everything is going wrong when it isn’t.” This lament from a former Western official, who, like others quoted in this piece, did not speak for attribution, summed up the frustrations of many in Kabul about the growing disconnect between the political timetables inside and outside the country. The concern is not only that the various transition deadlines are unrealistic, but that their very existence is creating counterproductive pressures that will make them even harder to achieve. After last weekend’s Wikileaks … Continue Reading…