Word: rumsfeld
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...used to it; with European leaders under electoral pressure to show green hearts, global warming will feature at summits for years to come. And so, for all the grips and grins in Ljubljana, will missile defense. Bush has asked Secretary of State Colin Powell and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to work with their Russian counterparts on a "new security framework." Those talks won't be easy; Washington may have changed the dismissive, almost contemptuous tone in which it discussed Moscow earlier in the year, but Putin has deeply held positions on missile defense and NATO enlargement--and powerful constituencies...
...Spoken like the best striped-pants diplomat. And when Rumsfeld met his ministerial counterparts in Brussels, he treated the Europeans to the full measure of persuasion and consultation as the Americans shared videotapes and intelligence data to make the case for national missile defense. But the plain truth is, a defense review that doesn't prioritize the Asian theater won't be worth reading. Asia is where the action is?or where it could be. John Chipman, director of the International Institute of Strategic Studies in London, points out that many key European defense issues haven't changed for most...
...skeptical but not opposed" to the idea. For many analysts, the key question is whether leading European governments are prepared to ask their fat and happy electorates for the tax revenue needed to upgrade their armed forces. On missile defense, the Europeans are yet to be convinced, though Rumsfeld, by all accounts, gave it his best shot in Brussels. As for the enlargement of NATO to include nations formerly part of the Soviet Union, Paris, London and Berlin see little to be gained from needlessly antagonizing Russia...
...past two weeks, some of the heat has gone out of U.S.-European disagreement on those issues, and for that, you can thank the gentleman from Vermont, James Jeffords. When he handed control of the U.S. Senate to the Democrats, he changed the strategic equation. As one observer of Rumsfeld's trip to Brussels noted, it may now be no easier to convince the Senate than the Europeans of the virtue of missile defense. And it took extensive lobbying by the Clinton Administration to get the Senate (then under Republican control) to welcome Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic into...
...next few months, the most important audience for Rumsfeld's diplomatic charm may be a fractious, self-important, Democrat-controlled body on Capitol Hill. When that exercise starts, the headlines will be about NATO enlargement and Senate worries about allied reaction to missile defense. But remember: Asia's where you'll find the real meat in the defense review...