BRUSSELS — The mood on China in Western capitals is beginning to darken. From cyber-attacks to obstinacy in Copenhagen, Beijing’s assertiveness and the hardening tone of its diplomacy are prompting a rethink. If the competitive aspects of the relationship with China are going to dominate in the years ahead, have the United States and Europe got their strategies right? And if not, what are the options?

The deterioration in the West’s outlook on China has been startling. This is partly a result of the sheer range of different fronts on which Beijing’s assertiveness has been on display in recent months. It … Continue Reading…

WASHINGTON — Israel last week submitted its response to the UN’s Goldstone Report.  That report investigated the conduct of Israel and Hamas during the Gaza war in January 2009, accusing both sides of war crimes.  It recommended resorting to the International Criminal Court if the sides failed to investigate the charges themselves.  One of Goldstone’s sharpest accusations, denied by Israel, was that Israel used incendiary phosphorous artillery near civilians, against the laws of war.

The Goldstone report and Israel’s response point to some of the most important questions facing Western democracies today: when can our nations legitimately resort to military action, … Continue Reading…

WASHINGTON — World leaders meeting in London to discuss Afghanistan’s future have dealt themselves a weak hand.  The principal obstacles to success in Afghanistan have not been the adversary’s strength or any lack of support for the international mission by the Afghan public.  Rather, the primary obstacles to victory have been Western temporizing, irresolution, and planned force reductions on a timeline that better suits the Taliban’s strategic objectives than our own.  The weakness of the Afghan government, a critical handicap, is itself partly a byproduct of these broader strategic failures that have incentivized Afghan leaders to hedge against international abandonment … Continue Reading…

WASHINGTON — In the early 2000s, the issue of Muslim schoolgirls, teachers, and civil servants wearing headscarves in public institutions and schools was a heated national debate in France and a source of discussion and controversy around the world. In 2009, President Nicholas Sarkozy rekindled the flames of that debate with statements condemning the burqa in France, calling it a form of enslavement that was unwelcome in the country. Following his lead, on January 26, a French parliamentary panel recommended outlawing the use of face-covering veils in any public building or service institution, including public transportation. Though it is not … Continue Reading…

For a full write-up of the event, please click here.

WASHINGTON — There are two sets of policy issues emanating from the rubble and horror of Port-au-Prince: “Whither Haiti?” and “Whither relief aid?”

With Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah visiting the country, most of the attention is on the first question.  Is there, policymakers are asking, some dynamic by which the gravity of the earthquake will finally mobilize substantial global interest in building a functioning nation-state on the western end of Hispaniola?  Will the international donors finally sustain their development efforts sufficiently to help build the governance and economic foundations for a prosperous Haiti?

But the transatlantic … Continue Reading…

In a GMF video feature, Senior Fellow Dan Twining explains the importance of the Afghanistan conference on January 28, and the key topics shaping the discussion.

BERLIN — One year after taking office, President Obama’s polls have plummeted, unemployment is at 10 percent, the loss of Ted Kennedy’s Massachusetts Senate seat endangers the administration’s health care reforms, and Iran has rejected a deal that would allow it to enrich uranium abroad. All of that is bad news. But this is not the catastrophic bursting of an Obama Bubble. It’s the end of a hyperinflation of expectations. And about time, too.

“The nation I’m most interested in building is our own,” Obama said in his speech on Afghanistan last December. But his main focus was on domestic policy … Continue Reading…

WASHINGTON — One year after President Obama assumed office, 55 percent of Americans think their country is on the wrong track, according to National Journal.  Sixty-one percent believe their country is in decline, according to NBC and The Wall Street Journal.  Half the American public, according to Pew, embraces the isolationist premise that the United States should “mind its own business” in world affairs — sentiments not seen since the 1930s. This is not the kind of change many of us want to believe in.

Meanwhile, in response to President Obama’s outstretched hand, China has taken off its velvet glove to … Continue Reading…

WASHINGTON — Ask most Americans and Europeans to identify Vladimir Filat or find Moldova on a map and you’re likely to get a blank stare. Both, however, are worth getting to know. Filat is the new prime minister of Moldova, a small country of four million people that emerged from the break-up of the Soviet Union nearly 20 years ago and borders Ukraine and Romania. Despite its size, Moldova is an important piece to the puzzle of trying to achieve the vision of a Europe whole, free, and at peace.

Filat is in Washington this week to sign an agreement with … Continue Reading…