The European Courier | Terrorism and International Security

Poland once again exhibited a rather narrow strategic thinking and its deep rooted, post-communist “battered wife syndrome”. Poland has been fighting along with America in the last two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, eventually to see the main benefit of its own engagement, i.e. the Bush’s antimissile defense shield project, being cancelled by Bush’s successor in the Oval office. All Poland gained from its military engagement on America’s side is: tens of lives lost, no business contracts for the reconstruction of Iraq for the Polish companies, hundreds of millions of dollars spent and perhaps one unarmed MIM 104 Patriot mobile battery for training purposes that might be delivered in the future by the U.S. Read more

Under the Obama Administration, the bilateral Polish-U.S. relations have reached its lowest point since the collapse of the Soviet Union and Poland’s political reorientation to the Western democratic communities. Historically, those relations have never been so immaterial even under Obama’s Democratic predecessor Bill Clinton, who despite having strong leftist leanings, kept a reasonable strategic outlook at the U.S. role in the European balance of power. Read more

Obama’s September decision to terminate the antimissile defense shield in Poland and the Czech Republic is perhaps more interesting if one considers his overall performance in the foreign affairs field. During the last several major international crises, the Obama Administration has almost always landed on the wrong side of the history. Read more

there is unfinished business. Georgia is still aspiring to NATO membership. Saakashvili is still in place, and they have still not achieved full control of Caspian energy supplies. So this is, in my opinion, a very serious time for the security of Georgia." Read more

The EuropeanCourier.org interviewed Mr. John C. Hulsman, a foreign policy scholar at the

German Council on Foreign Relations and the co-author of The Godfather Doctrine: A Foreign

Policy Parable, which just hit the bookstores in the United States. We talked Georgia’s and

Ukraine’s inclusion into NATO, Obama’s plans to cancel the antimissile defense shield in Poland

and the Czech Republic, why Slobodan Milosevic died in the Hague and why Saddam Hussein

was hanged in Baghdad and whether George W. Bush was a good President for America.

Watch a TV debate about the “NATO’s expansion” in which the EuropeanCourier.org was

represented by our Editor, Sebastian Aulich. The other panelists were Mr. Muhamed Sacirbey, the

former Foreign Minister of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Mr. Peter Doran, a foreign policy expert at the

Center for European Policy Analysis in Washington D.C. Click on the link below, scroll down and

choose Episode nr 4, from Season nr 2, entitled “NATO”. Please email us your comments, especially if you disagree with what was said during the debate. Video

The EuropeanCourier.org interviews Mr. Wess Mitchell, a foreign policy expert and the

Director of Research at the Center for European Policy Analysis in Washington D.C. We talk

Obama's policy toward Russia and political developments in Central Europe. Read more

RECLAIMING THE RUSSIAN NORTH OF KAZAKHSTAN BY DR. ALEC RASIZADE | December 27, 2008

An official Russian territorial claim on the North of Kazakhstan is just a matter of

the time when Russia feels strong enough to reclaim it, and Nazarbaev knows that. There are several possible scenarios, the most classical of which is predicated on the Kosovo/Ossetia pattern, when the local Russian population holds a plebiscite which affirms the creation of a Russian autonomy in the North of Kazakhstan. Then, if the Kazakh government does not accede, the Russian autonomy declares its independence and asks Moscow to intervene. The final stage of this secession process calls for Moscow’s interference in any form leading to reunification with Mother Russia of the Great Steppe populated by Russians for four centuries. Read more

Sevastopol has been home to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet for 225 years. Since the annexation of Crimea in 1783, Sevastopol grew as the headquarters of the Russian Imperial Navy on the Black Sea vis-à-vis the Ottoman Empire. The presence of Russian Navy reinforces the local Russian population’s feeling that Crimea is part of Russia. Thousands of Russian sailors and soldiers stroll around the city, and huge Russian flags fly above the naval headquarters and other buildings. Read more

RUSSIAN REVANCHISM AFTER THE GEORGIAN BLITZKRIEG BY DR. ALEC RASIZADE | Dec. 5, 2008

Having withdrawn from the Armed Forces in Europe Treaty in 2007, Russia is militarizing the Caucasus and its European frontiers, disregarding Western efforts

to bring it back to the treaty regime. Russia is building airbases along the border

with Ukraine, modernizing its nuclear submarine fleet, and placing long-range missiles in the Caucasus, Belarus and Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea. Ramifications

Speaking on May 28th in Polish Sejm, Nicolas Sarkozy said that Poland has been the only country in Europe against which France never waged a war. Ironically, only a few months later, Sarkozy found himself in a fierce conflict not only with Poland’s top political establishment, but also became a target of humiliating criticism from many respected Central European intellectuals and leaders like Vaclav Havel. Read more

The Mumbai terror attacks were intended to preempt the challenge posed to the terrorists' world vision by an incoming Obama Presidency. President Obama is inconsistent with their world vision of irreconcilable global conflict, at least in his election as President of the United States. If we focus only on the narratives of the terrorists' brutality we could lose sight of their rationale for perpetuating the crime. Read more

The Russia’s invasion of Georgia may be a turning point in the history. However, it is hard to believe those voices, which claim that a new Cold War is coming and that the West will define itself once again in opposition to the Orthodox civilization. Russia is not a match to the West and never will be again. It is a utopian dream of some of Russia’s elites, who believe that their country can become a counterweight to the overwhelming power of the West. Read more

The fact that the current Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has been the subject of criticism by his own people as an absolutist, is relevant to the discussion, but only for understanding how this crisis was triggered. It is self evident that President Saakashvili overstepped by translating his words into military action to reclaim separatist territories. Besides that military recourse should be initiated only as a last and defensive resort, President Saakashvili gave a resurgent Russian imperial agenda the opportunity that was seeking the excuse . Read more

The EuropeanCourier.org started a blog in which we will be posting information, news, links to interesting articles, reports, interviews and political analysis relating to the conflict in the Abkhazia region, Georgia. Click on the picture on the right and you will be redirected to the blog.

- an interview with Amb. Irakli Alasania, Permanent Representative of Georgia to the United Nations in New York about Abkhazia crisis, Georgia’s peace initiatives, relations with Russia, NATO membership and the political role of the U.S. in Caucasus. Read more

SERIOUS SECURITY CHALLENGE FOR THE REGION February 25, 2008

- an interview with Mr. Pavle Jevremovic, Permanent Representative of Serbia to the United Nations.

Read more | Video

NUCLEAR BOMBS IN AMERICAN CITIES BY SEBASTIAN AULICH | December 29, 2007

If any place in America is going to be hit by a terrorist nuclear attack, there are pretty big chances that it will be New York City again. New York is world’s financial capital with the most influential stock market on the globe (NYSE), therefore it is a very attractive target. Also it is a place where the United Nations are headquartered. [...] A small nuclear bomb, comparable to that dropped on Hiroshima, if detonated in midtown Manhattan on a typical workday, would instantly kill half a million of people. Only the damage in midtown Manhattan would amount to around $1 trillion. Read more

SECURITY COUNCIL IN REHAB BY MO SACIRBEY | November 1, 2007

You know that Amy Winehouse melody: “They wanna make me go to rehab, but I say, No, No, No!!!” Well, that obstinacy fits the UN Security Council, for the last 15 years or more. Everyone knows that the UN Security Council is in need of reform, but only the Security Council is in a position to ultimately act upon it. Read more

CHINA AND THE NEW WORLD ORDER BY SEBASTIAN AULICH | June 19, 2007

A different new world order is emerging. However, ultimate decline and abdication of the West is highly hypothetic. Favorable demographic projections for the U.S. and the undergoing internal changes in the EU, may cause the Western civilization to become even more powerful than it was in the past. Read more

A PACKAGE DEAL FOR THE MIDDLE EAST BY TADEUSZ A. KISIELEWSKI | February 10, 2007

Americans believe that their federal constitutional model is the best in the world, and seek to promote it as a panacea for all socio-political problems [...] In Africa and Latin America the same system has produced corrupt dictatorships. Trying to introduce Western democracy in toto in an Arab country at one stroke is to attempt a cultural revolution from the outside. Read more

If domestic movements which truly desire to implement democracy, do not exist and the West cannot replace them, then the role of the West is to find such potential forces, educate them, and then support them in their fight against authoritarian governments. If such a strategy is to be successful it needs to be coordinated and carried out by all the major Western countries acting in concert. Read more

UNITED NATIONS' FIGHT AGAINST NUCLEAR TERRORISM BY SEBASTIAN AULICH | June 6, 2006

War on terror has many front lines. Besides numerous intelligence agencies and military forces actively taking action to eliminate terrorist threat around the world, there are many other groups of people and organizations willing to contribute to this great effort. Read more

In 1977 a young student of Princeton University, who was facing a threat of being ousted for unsatisfactory academic performance, figured an original though unusual plan which he believed would allow him to successfully continue his studies and prevent from being expelled. Read more