America and transatlantic relations
-
Germany and NATO - an Uneasy Relationship
AFRI 2009, Volume X
par - 18 January 2010NATO has been a central pillar for Germany’s security system for more than sixty years now. Yet, Germany’s reunification has reduced its role and led to question the future of the Organisation and its missions, as well as Germany’s position within this collective security structure. The German public opinion, usually hostile to any kind of foreign military intervention, questions NATO as its necessity is perceived to be increasingly diminishing for German security in a peaceful European context. The wide disapproval of the war of Iraq has undermined transatlantic relations. Thus, the future commitment of the Bundeswehr – who, scarcely supported by the population, and undergoing a thorough and complete change in the Afghan conflict, is the focal point for German public criticism – will prove decisive for future relations between NATO and Germany.
-
Britain and NATO
AFRI 2009, Volume X
par - 18 January 2010NATO has a particular relationship with Great-Britain : it is both a most British institution and perceived as essential to British security. To the eyes of British leaders, NATO thus appears to be the sole legitimate institution capable of representing a Western strategic presence against the new stakes and threats to world security. Several paths of thinking are contemplated ; the elaboration of a new Strategic Concept, notably by integrating the problematic of the EU-US relationship or a new, closer relationship between these two players, defining the Global Approach and Global Defence and integrating them within a planning instrument such as SHAPE, and finally modernising armed forces. London’s challenge then resides in the deep discrepancies within the Alliance itself about its identity. The difficulty lies in maintaining a systematic, legitimate and coercive organisation model, while adapting it to widen its influence and its range of action.
-
From Bosnia to Afghanistan : NATO, information and the media
AFRI 2009, Volume X
par , - 18 January 2010At the end of the Cold War, NATO has been faced with a major communication problem: justifying its existence after the collapse of the Soviet Union. To that end, it has developed a message ambivalent enough to make it essential to build a Europe of Defence. At the same time, the media are changing because of the first Gulf War. The onset of wars in Europe led NATO to adopt techniques of information warfare experienced in the Gulf, resulting from the ongoing « Revolution in Military Affairs » in the United States. NATO’s intervention during the Kosovo crisis allowed it to test information operations. With their feedback, it was able to adjust once again its communication device, making it interoperable with military requirements. Meanwhile, the media adapted to this new way of conducting operations, which affected their informational aspect. The intervention in Afghanistan is the opportunity to fine-tune even more the information operations’ concept.
-
Adapting the European Security Strategy, the White Paper on security and NATO’s new strategic concept : re-framing attitudes
AFRI 2009, Volume X
par - 18 January 2010The adaptation of the European Security Strategy at the end of 2008, the proposals for the drafting of a White Paper on European security and defence and the first considerations about a new Strategic Concept for NATO have caused many interrogations. Realigned attitudes and interactions in the schedules complicated the diplomatic dummy entry. The new US administration, the new French policy with NATO and the big challenges of the ESDP all impose new goals and tactful politics.
-
NATO’s metamorphosis
AFRI 2009, Volume X
par - 18 January 2010In its attempt to endure in a geopolitical context radically different from that which had presided over its inception more than 60 years ago, NATO has been offered a new agenda, principally originating from the United States. The latter are thus actively hoping that their European partners will agree that NATO must transform to be able to intervene where Western interests are at stake and to be in charge of all problems that may affect international security if need be. Europeans may approve Washington-inspired NATO objectives, yet they cautiously refrain from concretely applying the resulting consequences. In spite of its undermining inner contradictions, NATO’s perennity seems guaranteed. While the link between armies and nations is dangerously slackening in Europe, NATO provides armed forces with an agenda, action and causes to defend.
-
US hegemony and the stake of the Venezuelian neo-bolivarism
AFRI 2008, volume IX
par - 24 July 2008Since the first colonization, at the end of the 15th century, Latin America and Caribbean islands where in the political orbit of extra-regional actors. After three centuries of European influences, the region was submitted to the US’s multifarious domination. Three steps: the rise of US power; leadership; then, military and trading unilateralism. Such a process has soon generated a feeling of frustration and contestation among the Latino intelligentsia, as well as among the people. So, neo-Bolivarian Venezuelian claims are nothing but an avatar of a deep and steadfast contestation.
-
The United States: a rogue State?
AFRI 2008, volume IX
par - 24 July 2008In this article, Robert Litwak presents a surprising international phenomenon: over a mere few years, the United States’ image in the world has profoundly degraded from the status of a "victim" after the attacks of 9-11 to that currently of dangerous "rogue State". Litwak attributes this change in perceptions to the "assertive unilateralism" that the US of George W. Bush has adopted after the 9-11 trauma. Far from being efficient, this unilateralist strategy has led the United States into the Iraqi trap and has considerably altered its potential for sympathy. More important, the U.S. suffers from the loss of their credibility, which will thwart the "indispensable nation" from playing its part on the international stage.
-
The triangular relationship between China, India and the United States since the end of the Cold War
AFRI 2007, volume VIII
par - 20 March 2008Since the end of the Cold War, the rise of China, followed by the emergence of India, are among the factors leading to the changing structure of power in Asia, where the United States also play a prominent role. On the one hand, this dual emergence has influenced the bilateral relationships between China, the United States, and India ; on the other hand, it has influenced their relationships on a triangular basis. This triangular relationship was weak at the beginning of the 1990s, but since then it has largely strengthened, to the extent that today the relationship between any two of these States affects more and more the relationship of the third with the two others. But moreover, changes in the foreign and defence policies of one of these States greatly affect the relationship between the two others. Consequently, the development of the triangular relationship between China, India, and the United States has become one of the major factors affecting the balance of power in Asia.
-
The United States today
AFRI 2007, volume VIII
par - 20 March 2008American exceptionalism may have had the original consequences of a domestic « small government » and isolationism abroad, yet, the United Sates’ recent evolution seems to run up against these first posits. Three major changes have left their imprint on the United States during the last six decades. The first two can be positively reviewed: economy is fully expanding in spite of some recurring concerns, while immigration and integration seem to go hand in hand in spite of a definite questioning on the future of the American people. The last change is far touchier: it is related to the disasters of the neo-conservative-inspired foreign policy, which compromises the United States’ part of ‘indispensable nation’ in the new international environment.
-
Nouvelles pratiques américaines en matière de légitime défense ?
AFRI 2005, volume VI
par - 1 January 2006Résumé Avec la doctrine de la légitime défense préventive, les Etats-Unis soutiennent une application particulière du droit de se faire justice à soi-même. La théorie de l’action «anticipative», si elle n’est pas étendue à des menaces «potentielles» mais bien limitée à des menaces «imminentes», semble compatible avec une interprétation évolutive de la légitime défense. Les vraies difficultés soulevées par la politique américaine se situent davantage au niveau de sa mise en oeuvre. Comment prouver le caractère (...)