The 8th annual Transatlantic Trends survey of European and American attitudes is out. I must first qualify “European,” which includes non-EU Turkey (which is not even in Europe, according to many), but does not include a number of EU countries. No Scandinavians, no Baltics? Likewise, “American” is just that: the US’s North [...]

Michael Jackson’s televised funeral farewell turned out to be rather dignified, surprising those who expected the worst from a crowd of fanatical fans. But that doesn’t mean I approve of the time the world spent on this distraction.
So far, the G8 summit in L’Aquila has produced photo ops galore for host Silvio Berlusconi, and [...]

As soon as you start using the term pirate, unfortunately cute or nostalgic images of Johnny Depp and Long John Silver come to mind - “Avast, me hearties!” (”avast” means to stop or cease) and other lusty lingo. All that is best relegated to the world of children’s stories (image, Playwood Toys). Today’s [...]

NDLR: Voici mes remarques lors d’une conférence à Bruxelles organisée par GRIP, pour présenter leur nouveau livre, “Qui Arme Israel Et Le Hamas?”
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La politique américaine au Moyen-Orient et Obama : quels changements possibles ?
Je me présente aujourd’hui comme ancien diplomate américain au Moyen-Orient et en Afrique du Nord. Durant la campagne présidentielle américaine, j’agissais [...]

Gluttons for punishment can check out the Guardian’s special page on the furore over parliamentary profligacy in the UK. There’s everything from toilet seats to televisions.
Others, recognizing the utility of parliamentary democracy as long as it does not go the way of the Roman Senate, might want to check into the “Parliament Hotel,” my [...]

NDLR: Voici le texte de mes remarques hier soir lors de la présentation du nouveau livre du Professeur Irnerio Seminatore, Directeur de l’Institut Européen des Relations Internationales (IERI) et de l’Academia Diplomatica Europaea (ADE), deux institutions Bruxelloises. Son livre, publié chez l’Harmattan, s’intitule “l’Europe entre utopie et realpolitik.” La conférence a eu lieu [...]

In today’s Washington Post, business columnist Steven Pearlstein, writing from Lisbon, sees a “Third Way” emerging in the Transatlantic approach to the world’s economic crisis. The “Third Way” used to be a favourite of Graham Greene characters in books like “The Quiet American,” usually naive idealists trying to find a Cold War middle ground between [...]

Years ago in a community development project in Ramallah, when it was still just a sleepy, recently-occupied West Bank town, one of my fellow volunteers, a devilish Turk named Ali, gave me language lessons. In Turkish body language, said Ali, you have the nodding of the head up and down for “yes,” the shaking [...]

No need for me to chronicle or comment on the seemingly never-ending summit saga of President Obama. His procession through Europe - London to Strasbourg to Prague to… Istanbul, which has a foot in both Europe and Asia - has been documented amply, including by Belgian novelist Amélie Nothomb, who wrote in Saturday’s New [...]

“NATO is watching us watching them.”
Such was the sentiment - confirmed by the impressive NATO presence, including several Assistant Secretary General (ASG)-level officials - at the end of this week’s two-day “NATO Shadow Summit.” The event, the first of the name, inspired in part by the new organisation “NATO Watch” (along with principal partners [...]