NATO

The Turkish president's thuggish autocracy and reflexive anti-Americanism make him very popular in his country.

It’s been a rough few weeks for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A bedrock of the liberal international order, NATO has over the years faced challenges and crises from both within and without. But until recently, few would have envisioned NATO becoming a punching bag for the president of the…

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

The site claims a "satire" label. Readers don't believe it.

Just like the balloon designed to mock him.

Veni, vidi, vici. That’s what Trump would have tweeted en route to a weekend of golf at his courses in Scotland had he not forgotten his high school Latin. Traditional diplomat Nicholas Burns, former U.S. ambassador to NATO, says “The president treated the NATO allies almost with contempt.” Delete…

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

President Donald Trump visited Brussels on July 10 as part of his three-nation European trip. There he offended our NATO allies and outraged both the American and European news media by excoriating the many alliance members who spend below the 2 percent of GDP they agreed to spend on defense in…

He’s right—or at least not wrong.

For much of the post-World War II era, the United States believed it required a military capable of fighting and winning two major conflicts at once. In no small measure this was a legacy of the war just fought, with major action in the Pacific against Imperial Japan and in Europe against Nazi…

Hosted by Jonathan V. Last.

Athens

President Donald Trump leaves for Europe Wednesday morning ahead of the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg Friday and Saturday. But instead of starting off with meetings with the leaders of traditional allies of the United Kingdom, France, and Germany, the president will first travel to our NATO ally…

Just when it looked as if the professionals in the Trump administration had taken over administration of trade policy, leaving the president to handle the rhetoric, someone in the Trump camp recalled that some 70 years ago—in 1947—23 nations signed the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT),…

Thursday's NATO Summit provides an opportunity for the alliance to get tough on its putative Turkish ally. Under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's destabilizing policies in Europe and the Middle East have made it appear less an ally and more a Russian Trojan horse. To keep Turkey on track,…

What's the holdup? Deputy national security advisor K.T. McFarland is waiting to leave the White House to prepare for her new assignment as the U.S. ambassador to Singapore. An administration official confirmed back on April 9 that McFarland, a veteran of the Reagan administration who was a Fox…

After World War II, the United States created an international system aimed at preventing the kinds of catastrophic conflicts that consumed the first half of the 20th century. This system was underwritten by hard power such as the American nuclear arsenal and the NATO alliance. Yet, underneath…

Speaker Paul Ryan will take advantage of the House recess to lead a bipartisan delegation to the United Kingdom and three other European countries next week to discuss economic and security matters facing NATO member countries, his office announced Wednesday.

It seems that President Trump handed German Chancellor Angela Merkel a bill when she visited the United States—for almost $400 billion. That represents the amount Trump reckons is due to cover Germany's failure to meet its commitment to support NATO to the tune of 2 percent of its GDP, plus…

The top U.S. general in Afghanistan said he is a few thousand NATO troops short to meet his mission to train, advise and assist local forces.

Russian president Vladimir Putin is already waging a war against the West and American hegemony—if only leaders in the United States would look at the evidence. That's what Molly K. McKew argues in a new feature at Politico magazine.

Tokyo

Donald J. Trump is the presidential nominee of the Republican party. But that does not absolve every Republican office holder, donor, and activist from the responsibility of satisfying himself that it is right to support that nominee for president. There are, in my judgment, many reasons to doubt…

The American foreign policy community is up in arms because Donald Trump told the New York Times he is disdainful of NATO. They’re right to be upset, but where were they when Barack Obama helped put Russia on NATO's Turkish border with his Syria policy?

The Kremlin sidestepped Donald Trump's statement that the United States should not immediately come to the defense of NATO allies under attack, according to reports by Russian news outlets, instead criticizing the premise of the question that prompted his response.

Cleveland

Cleveland

The coup against the Turkish government has reportedly been put down. It's almost a day after a faction of the Turkish military attempted to topple the government by closing bridges, sending tanks out in to the street, firing missiles at protestors from helicopters, and arresting a number of…

Secretary of State John Kerry skipped out early on what many considered the most important NATO meeting in decades in order to see the final original performance of a Broadway musical Saturday night.

As Russian influence spreads across Eastern Europe, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius said conventional military involvement by Russia in the Baltics is not expected, "because that would be stupid to challenge NATO."

A Department of Defense official said Tuesday that Russia could overrun NATO within 60 hours, but maintained it would be more difficult to do so after 2017.

Donald Trump dug in with his skepticism of NATO on Thursday, calling the alliance and its mission out-of-date.

Today, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg confirmed that Russia has violated Turkish airspace for a second time. On Saturday, a Russian plane crossed into Turkish airspace near the Syrian border, and in response the Turks scrambled two F-16s. In a subsequent incident, Ankara said that a…

In fall 1991, a member of the Slovenian parliament visited me at my office at the American Enterprise Institute to discuss her country’s campaign to join NATO. I recall the intensity of the conversation and how odd her zeal seemed to me at that moment. The Cold War was over. Slovenia’s fate as a…

Weekend remarks concerning Russia's current activities in Syria by Gen. Philip Breedlove, commander of U.S. European Command and NATO's supreme allied commander, are far from reassuring. Speaking to reporters after NATO's Military Committee Conference in Istanbul on Saturday, Breedlove…

Has NATO become a paper tiger, trying (and failing) to stand up to a resurgent Russian bear? A speech by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the Center for Strategic and International Studies on Wednesday addressed this issue, discussing both the challenges facing the 66-year-old alliance,…

It was a long time ago and a galaxy far, far away: In July 2008, presidential candidate Barack Obama made big, bold news by travelling to Berlin to – as The New York Times triumphantly recorded – “restore the world’s faith in strong American leadership and idealism.” With 200,000 Berliners waving…

Tallinn

Former Texas governor Rick Perry is taking on Russian president Vladimir Putin. The possible presidential candidate says that the "peace and security of the world" depends on how America deals with Russia.

The Russians want delivery of their aircraft carrier.  They contracted with the French to build it and a deal is a deal.  But things are not (yet) so far gone that a NATO country is willing to arm the enemy for a few francs.

Europe is experiencing increased, and threatening, intrusions by Russian aircraft and:

During his visit to Washington this week, Israeli defense minister Moshe Ya'alon has spent part of his time criticizing Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority, warning about the dangers of a bad nuclear deal with Iran—and highlighting the problems with Turkey.

Only 12 years ago, the Republic of Turkey was correctly seen as the model of a pro-Western Muslim state, and a bridge between Europe and the Middle East. A strong military bond with the Pentagon undergirded broader economic and cultural ties with Americans. And then, starting with the 2002…

Vladimir Putin’s efforts to establish hegemony over Ukraine may now have reached a decisive point both for the balance of power in Central and Eastern Europe and for the NATO alliance. Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko warned on August 30 that Russia’s invasion of his country and extensive aid…

The WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with senior writer Stephen F. Hayes on why you shouldn't bet on President Obama using any muscle on his foreign policy.

With the president attending this week's NATO summit in Wales, and the heightened concerns among the organization’s members – especially the newer ones with experience of hand’s-on Russian domination and rule – it might be profitable for our “allies” to consider some facts reported by Gideon…

CNBC reports the U.S. ambassador to NATO, Douglas Lute, is saying that

Vladimir Putin does not seem inclined to talk nice and patch things up with the West. To the contrary, he is drawing lines. They may, or may not, be “red." He seems confident enough not to need the modifier.

Kiev

The continuing Ukraine crisis raises both a critical “what if?” question and a pressing policy issue. What if, in April 2008, the Europeans had not rejected President Bush’s proposal to bring Ukraine and Georgia onto a clearly defined path to joining NATO? And today, urgently, should we try again…

The crisis in Ukraine has not reached the dreaded point where it turns into a shooting war.  And likely it will not.  So we hear no urgent analysis of things like objectives, interior lines, unity of command, logistical staying power, the durability of alliances, and the other matters that have…

The situation in Ukraine continues to deteriorate, providing Russia with what it considers a case for intervention.  As James Marson and Lukas I. Alpert of the Wall Street Journal report this morning:

President Obama is keeping up the rhetorical pressure on Russia. As Justin Sink of the Hill reports:

An open letter from the Foreign Policy Initiative to President Obama:

Kosovo, the Albanian-majority Balkan republic, is probably best known for its fervent pro-Americanism, understandable given the role of U.S.-led NATO forces in assisting its 1.8 million inhabitants against Serbian oppression in 1999. American troops in Kosovo are drawn from National Guard units and…

Gary Schmitt writes that Nobel Peace Prize committee snubbed NATO:

Paul Bremer emails with this observation:

Could we be slipping into another one of those summers of Europe riding down the rails to catastrophe? A disaster that all can see coming but that none seems to have the tools or the will to prevent.

Twenty years have passed since the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina declared its independence from Yugoslavia at the beginning of March 1992. Bosnian independence came after Slovenia, Croatia, and Macedonia had left Yugoslavia in 1991. Slobodan Milosevic, the Yugoslav dictator, proclaimed Serbian…

The Telegraph reports that Chinese spies likely were able to access the Facebook account of NATO chief Adm. James Stavridis:

The country of Georgia has been sending troops to Afghanistan to support the NATO-led mission since 2004. Over the past year, over 900 Georgian soldiers have been serving in Helmand province, deployed alongside American, British, and Danish troops in one of the most conflict-laden and contested…

The scene was one of jubilation, as British prime minister David Cameron and French president Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in Libya’s capital on September 15 to cheering throngs waving British and French flags. The two men basked in the glow of victory, as well they should. Both had advocated armed…

Telegraph: "Libya could fall into hands of extremists, Nato warns"

Benghazi, Libya

Zwara, Libya—We’ve arrived in Zwara, which is about 70 miles from Tripoli and 35 miles from the Tunisian border. It’s impossible to get out in any direction, though one could get out to sea, if one fancied a long boat trip.

Jadu, Libya—Yesterday, around 4 p.m., 10 Jadu fighters, who were attempting to cut off the retreat of a column of Qaddafi militiamen, were killed by an errant NATO missile strike near Badr, Libya. Two other fighters are missing. The loss of ten, who included two commanders, is an unimaginable…

Back in February, weeks before NATO launched its Libyan bombing campaign but after the Tripoli regime had slaughtered hundreds of civilians, Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega phoned Muammar Qaddafi multiple times to express his support. Speaking publicly, Ortega declared that the bloodstained…

Oslo—During the Second World War, Nazi Germany occupied Norway over five brutal years. By the time the Scandinavian nation was liberated by Allied forces and its indigenous resistance movement, more than 10,000 Norwegians had lost their lives and almost as many had spent time in German…

Byron York reports: 

It’s not war but a “time-limited, scope-limited military action.” The United States has been in the lead, but will be stepping back, ASAP, in favor of command (supposedly) by a squabbling coalition of the not-so-willing. The objective of the “kinetic military action”—which is going to last days,…