Europe’s American president: The paradox of Ursula von der Leyen

Europe’s Amer­i­can pres­i­dent: The para­dox of Ursu­la von der Leyen Euro­pean Com­mis­sion chief’s top-down approach has endeared her to Wash­ing­ton but alien­at­ed col­leagues in Brus­sels. By Suzanne Lynch and Ilya Grid­neff Illus­tra­tion by Lucas Pev­er­ill for POLITICO Ursu­la von der Leyen’s whirl­wind tour of the Unit­ed States start­ed in New York at the Unit­ed Nations General…

When will Europe learn to defend itself?

PARIS/BERLIN — Thir­ty years after the hor­rors of the Balkan wars laid bare West­ern Europe’s inca­pac­i­ty to deal with con­flict on Euro­pean soil, Russia’s inva­sion of Ukraine is demon­strat­ing how lit­tle has changed. As Yugoslavia start­ed to break apart in 1991, it fell to the Lux­em­bour­gish For­eign Min­is­ter Jacques Poos to make the ill-fat­ed­­ly optimistic…

How Gorbachev’s political legacy was destroyed by Putin

How Gorbachev’s polit­i­cal lega­cy was destroyed by Putin Era of detente and arms con­trol between Wash­ing­ton and Moscow has been replaced by a bloody war in Ukraine Live reac­tion: trib­utes from world lead­ers after Mikhail Gorbachev’s death Mikhail Gor­bachev lived long enough to see every­thing he had tried to achieve crum­ble or get blown up. The era…

The Guardian view on the US in Africa: a better tone, but what next? | Editorial

The Guardian view on the US in Africa: a bet­ter tone, but what next? Edi­to­r­i­al Though the sec­re­tary of state struck the right note on his three-nation tour, it will take more than rhetoric to strength­en part­ner­ships on the con­ti­nent The only way was up. When Don­ald Trump wasn’t den­i­grat­ing “shit­hole coun­tries”, his admin­is­tra­tion showed little…

Blinken makes case for democracy at start of sub-Saharan Africa tour

Blinken makes case for democ­ra­cy at start of sub-Saha­ran Africa tour Sec­re­tary of state tells reporters in South Africa that US ‘not try­ing to out­do any­one’ amid grow­ing influ­ence of Rus­sia and Chi­na  Antony Blinken, the US sec­re­tary of state, has appealed to “gov­ern­ments, com­mu­ni­ties and peo­ples” across Africa to embrace Washington’s vision of democ­ra­cy, openness…

Former US security officials: We did ‘everything possible’ to bring Russia into international systems — Fox News

NEWYou can now lis­ten to Fox News arti­cles!  For­mer secu­ri­ty offi­cials insist that the Unit­ed States made every effort to inte­grate Rus­sia, reject­ing claims that Amer­i­ca “tried to humil­i­ate” the for­mer Sovi­et Union.  “I will go out on a limb here and say that I think every­body from the Clin­ton admin­is­tra­tion to the Bush admin­is­tra­tion, to…