Word: nato
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Kosovo's political status had been undetermined since 1999, when Serbian forces were forced to withdraw under NATO bombs. The province was then placed under U.N. control. Now, Kosovo's elected government is expected to assume more authority, although it will still be closely monitored by members of the newly established European Union mission. The EU will also provide much of the new nation's police force and judiciary, while some 17,000 NATO troops will continue to secure peace...
...first blush, the same old depressing script. When U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates gave a major speech on the need for NATO members to step up their efforts in Afghanistan at the annual Munich Conference on Security Policy last week, a quick scan of the headlines would have made you think we were back where we were five (or, to be honest, 25) years ago. That is to say: an American policymaker comes to Europe and lectures the Allies on the need to recognize that it's a dangerous world out there, that the comfortable folk on the eastern...
...that "many people on this Continent may not comprehend the magnitude of the direct threat to European security" from violent Islamic extremism. Some comments in Germany after his speech - Gates has been involved in a very public effort to persuade the German government to boost its contribution to the NATO force in Afghanistan and post troops to the dangerous south of the country as well as the north and west - showed the world-weary hauteur that Americans have come to expect from some Europeans. "The superpower America reacts to crisis situations in Afghanistan," sniffed the newspaper Handelsblatt, "with its stereotypical...
...Munich conference, and put things in perspective for me. When he was serving in U.S. Army intelligence in Germany, Peters said, "We couldn't get the Germans to move 8 km. Now we've got them moving 8,000 miles." That speaks to a transformation in NATO's true nature. For all its vaunted success in the cold war, Peters argues, NATO back then was really a political organization. But now - fitfully, to be sure - it is becoming a true military alliance, one that fights, and shares the business of fighting among its members...
...Gazprom's decisions in the marketplace are often tied to Kremlin concerns, and there could be several political and economic reasons behind the new pressure on Ukraine. Russia is unhappy at the restoration to power of Yuschenko's pro-NATO coalition following last year's snap legislative election. It is also irked by Ukraine's imminent accession to World Trade Organization membership, which would improve Kiev's ability to stand up to Russian blackmail by giving it the means to block Russia's own, coveted but much postponed entry into the organization...