Tag: US foreign policy

As Europe starts putting together its new diplomatic service, it needs to emancipate itself from US foreign policy and start speaking with one voice if it is to avoid slipping into irrelevance, British and US experts said on Tuesday (24 November).

A fully-fledged climate treaty to fight global warming will not be reached next month in Copenhagen but a framework pact is still possible, the head of the European Commission said on the margins of an EU-US summit.

"The US-China relationship is becoming the most important bilateral relationship in the world," writes Stanley Crossick, the founder of the European Policy Centre, in a March blog post reflecting on the outcome of the recent G20 summit in London.

There is "little appetite" today in the Western world to monitor Russia's "influence operations" and "active measures" vis-à-vis the EU, Ariel Cohen, a senior researcher with the conservative US Heritage Foundation, told EurActiv in an interview.

A new US commitment to tackle global warming outlined by President Barack Obama will be the focus of attention today (22 April) at a meeting of international environment ministers in Sicily.

The G20 group of developed and developing countries yesterday (3 April) showed a united front as it agreed on a $1.1 trillion deal to combat the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and tighten financial rules to stop it happening again.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is today (5 March) expected to back a resumption of formal ties with Russia, as Washington and its allies seek a broad front in their troubled battle against Afghan militants and other threats.

On his first day in office, US President Barack Obama put an end to the previous administration's controversial methods of fighting the war against terrorism and established a strong diplomatic team to address the world's hotbeds of tension.

Europeans appear to be dazed and confused about the United States' decision to elect a symbol of change to the White House. Some wish their own societies were capable of similar breakthroughs, but others are sceptical of President-elect Barack Obama's ability to bring about real change, reveals a round-up of contributions from the EurActiv network.

Barack Obama could better represent a new beginning in transatlantic relations than his Republican opponent John McCain, Elmar Brok, a conservative MEP from Germany, told EurActiv in an interview.

The next US president will "inherit the most complex, difficult and dangerous array of foreign policy challenges ever facing a newcomer to the Oval Office," writes Strobe Talbott, president of the Brookings Institution, in the autumn edition of Internationale Politik (IP).

Russia's invasion of Georgia has shown the world that the US, the EU and NATO are all "paper tigers" in that region, writes former US ambassador to Serbia and Montenegro William D. Montgomery for Belgrade media service B92.

With US presidential elections looming, it is necessary to manage the expectation of change in US foreign policy to heal the transatlantic rift, says John Glenn of the German Marshall Fund of the US in a March 2008 paper, using the 2007 Transatlantic Trends survey to gather opinions on both sides of the Atlantic.

The hopes of many Europeans for a different relationship with the US after the Bush mandate rests on a premise that the Bush administration is unique, writes Kori Schake in this paper from the Centre for European Reform. The future of transatlantic relations will depend on the will of Europeans and Americans to take the sensibilities of the others into account, she argues.

According to a recent survey by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, Turks represent the largest section of Middle-East citizens who consider the US as the greatest threat to their lives, liberty and cultural values, despite Turkey being a NATO ally and a country touted as the type of secular, multi-party democracy that America should foster in the Middle East.

The US is in the midst of a major shift in public opinion on climate change, including business and political circles, according to a number of high-level US speakers at a 14 June Brussels conference that compared transatlantic agendas on the issue. 

The transatlantic relationship is marked by the fact that the US needs the EU to boost the legitimacy of its operations, says Council Director Jim Cloos, in an exclusive interview with EurActiv on the trends in the EU's foreign policy.

The European visit of US President George W. Bush on 21 and 22 February could be a turning point in the troubled transatlantic relationship. EurActiv plans special coverage in the run-up to the visit.