Global Power Europe

When a friend sent me a link to this article in The Guardian yesterday morning, I must confess that I got very excited. The newspaper reported that David Miliband, the British foreign secretary, was to present a speech at the College of Europe in Bruges, outlining the need for the European Union to develop the […]

Just over one hundred years ago, a relatively influential coalition emerged in the British Empire called the Imperial Federation League. Founded in London in 1884, the League soon established branches in Australia, Barbados, British Guiana, Canada and New Zealand. Recognising the bourgeoning power of the newly integrated Germany, Tsarist Russia, and the United States, many […]

The presidential race in the United States has been well underway for quite some time. Everyone has heard of the frontrunners John McCain, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, and even those who have dropped out like Rudolph Giuliani. Less well known though is the fact that the position of ‘President of Europe’ is also up […]

On Tuesday, a letter was published in The Times outlining my views on the need for deeper integration in the European Union in areas relating to foreign, security and defence policy. Criticising a previous leader in The Times, I argued that the debate in Britain on the proposed ‘Reform Treaty’ had become narrow-minded and insular, […]

Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning’ said Winston Churchill during the European war against Nazism. Today, several decades later, the same line could be used to describe the integration process in Europe after the rejection of the […]

Over the weekend, the new British Defence Secretary, John Hutton, said in an interview in The Sunday Times that the time had come to consider the creation and mobilisation of a European army. He said the idea was simply ‘pragmatic’, and even went so far as to declare that while there were many anti-Europeans who […]

In recent years, many European navies have undergone quiet but nonetheless impressive enhancements. A number of imposing new aircraft carriers, landing platforms, warships and submarines have been introduced, particularly in the Royal Navy, the French Marine Nationale, Italy’s Marina Militare, the Deutsche Marine, the Armada Española, and the Koninklijke Marine of the Netherlands. These vessels […]

A military conflict has broken out in the European Neighbourhood, just across the Black Sea, on the European Union’s eastern frontier. The French Presidency of the Council of the European Union has issued a statement expressing its ‘grave concern’ over the situation, calling on the ‘exercise of the utmost restraint’ and for all parties to […]

Today, the British government announced a twenty percent increase in military spending over the next three years. This amounts to an extra £7.7 billion (€11.5 billion) in funding, which will take the national defence budget up from £33 billion (€49 billion) in 2007 to £36.9 billion (€55 billion) in 2011. Not only will this additional […]

Guest article by Alexandros Petersen In an interview published 20th April, Simon Lunn, secretary-general of NATO’s Parliamentary Assembly said that Georgia’s membership in NATO is ‘a question of when rather than if.’ This prediction follows supportive statements from German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, British prime minister, Tony Blair, French presidential candidate, Nicolas Sarkozy, and NATO […]