by Kati Suominen Wednesday, 9 September 2010 GERMAN MARSHALL FUND BLOG WASHINGTON — In a move likely to please China, India, and Brazil, but force a confrontation with Europe, the Obama administration last month blocked plans that would maintain the current size of the board of directors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This is […]
by Andrew Small Tuesday August 10, 2010 THE GERMAN MARSHALL FUND BRUSSELS — As aspiring Middle East peacemakers descend on Washington this week, one absentee has already been noted. Baroness Catherine Ashton, the EU foreign policy chief, chose to pass up dinner at the White House and instead pressed ahead with her trip to China, […]
by Ulf Gartzke Wednesday September 1, 2010 FOR ATLANTIC PARTNERSHIP Just a few days ago, German defense minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg presented five different reform proposals to restructure the country’s armed forces. Declining defense budgets coupled with increasing expeditionary demands on Bundeswehr forces around the world underline the case for fundamental reform of an institution […]
by Steve Clemons Tuesday August 10, 2010 THE WASHINGTON NOTE In an important article titled “The Point of No Return” to be published in The Atlantic tomorrow, national correspondent Jeffrey Goldberg recounts something many people didn’t realize at the time and still have a hard time believing. President George W. Bush knocked back Dick Cheney’s wing of the […]
by Kurt Volker Sunday August 12, 2010 FOREIGN POLICY On the energy front, the European Union is financing interconnectors linking Central Europe to Germany’s and Western Europe’s gas pipeline network. Proponents of the Nabucco gas pipeline — intended to bring Azerbaijani and possibly Iraqi or Central Asian natural gas to Europe independent of Russia’s Gazprom […]