• Default ct image

    The crux of the matter: The Middle East after 11 September

    In the last two years or so, the situation in the Middle East has been quickly evolving from instability to war, while neither the local actors nor the United States, individual European countries or the European Union have been able to react to prevent it. Many new factors...

  • Default ct image

    The United States: the empire of force or the force of empire?

    Has America's attitude towards the use of force changed since 11 September 2001? Is the country being drawn away from the temptations of withdrawal or isolationism towards imperialism, and, moreover, from a liberal imperialism based on economic dynamism to a robust form founded...

  • Default ct image

    From candidate to member state: Poland and the future of the EU

    The official Polish position on the future of the European Union is characterised above all by continuity and evolution. ... Following a period of ‘uninformed enthusiasm’ in the formulation of the official position,the Polish government is trying to anticipate the role that...

  • Default ct image

    Russia: anchoring in troubled seas

    The year following 11 September witnessed Russian movement on a wide front. In the flurry, however, the origins of Russian shifts have been obscured. It is worth recalling that they reside not so much in September 2001 as in 1999. 11 September was an accelerator, not a turning...

  • Default ct image

    US: going nuclear?

    It has become commonplace to say that the events of 11 September have changed international affairs dramatically. With regard to nuclear affairs, this is also partly the case. The terrorist attacks themselves had no direct nuclear implications, but they gave new impetus to...

  • Default ct image

    US: the new Leviathan?

    American actions in the extended wake of 11 September are increasingly perplexing Europeans, the Administration’s spurning of the International Criminal Court (ICC) being only the latest in a string of disagreements that have beset transatlantic relations over recent months...

  • Default ct image

    Keine Kleinstaaterei

    Die jüngste Diskussion um die Finanzierung wichtiger Rüstungsprojekte hat einmal mehr die Engpässe im deutschen Verteidigungshaushalt aufgezeigt. Noch ist der Start des Airbus A400M finanziell nicht gesichert, da kündigt sich bei der Bewaffnung für den Eurofighter (Stichwort...

  • Default ct image

    Joining forces

    It is now widely accepted that Europe does not spend enough on defence. Most European defence budgets were dramatically cut back after the cold war and have remained at a very low level ever since. This governmental parsimony has had a damaging effect in two respects. First, it...

  • Default ct image

    Optimiser le processus de Barcelone

    On s’accorde généralement à dire que, depuis son lancement en 1995 à Barcelone, le Partenariat euro-méditerranéen n’a pas vraiment répondu aux grands espoirs qu’il avait suscités. Les ambitions initiales de cette nouvelle forme de politique méditerranéenne étaient en effet très...