Word: european
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...summit, Japan backed calls by the U.S. for greater fiscal spending to combat the recession - moves opposed by leaders of several European countries including France and Germany, who fear that unchecked government spending will lead to rampant inflation. But Aso dismissed German Chancellor Merkel's caution about fiscal stimulus before heading to London. "The fact that he picked a fight with Merkel plays very well - like he's one of the big boys," says Gerald Curtis, a professor at Columbia University who has written extensively about Japanese politics. "He looks like a leader. Even though people are nervous about increasing...
...military organization, which he described at a joint press conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy as "the most successful alliance in modern history." That it may have been. But Obama's praise contrasts starkly with the scathing assessment of the state of NATO, now 60 years old, by European military analysts, who say that the gap in military capability between the United States and Europe has grown so big that in some places battlefield communication between NATO forces and their US allies has become difficult. "It is such a deep divide that there is a risk that NATO will become...
...Under so-called caveats, each government sets restrictions on how and where their soldiers operate. Britain, France and the Netherlands are willing to send troops into combat, but many other European nations - including Germany, which has Europe's biggest military force - restricts them to non-combat roles. The Italian government recently said it would like to allow its troops in Afghanistan to engage in more fighting. A Pentagon official told TIME on Friday that although the U.S. would not reject any offers of more combat troops from Europe, they are instead pushing harder for "money to grow the Afghan national...
...Obama may be personally popular among Europeans, but that does not mean that he, and his Administration, will always get what they want. Military analysts say that the vast majority of Europe's soldiers who are not yet in Afghanistan are not capable of fighting alongside the U.S., in part because they lack the training and equipment vital to fighting in Afghanistan's tough terrain. Former NATO Secretary General George Robertson wrote in Friday's Financial Times that Europe's militaries were "pathetically ill-equipped for the world we foresee," and that the Continent's "usable deployable troops amount...
...This is not just because of the well-known aversion by European electorates to large defense budgets. Europe has for years concentrated its military spending on the continent's own defense. Instead of helicopters which are suited for Afghanistan's landscape, or more basic items like protective armor, European spending has favored big-ticket items like nuclear submarines and the Eurofighter. "Maybe these things are very important against some enemy - perhaps China," says Sascha Lange, military researcher for the German Institute for International and Security Affairs in Berlin. "But we have this very strong need for simply boots...