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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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, [...]

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