Spring/Summer 2006 Volume 7 - Numbers 1 & 2

Letter from the Editor
Cover Story
Economy and Trade
Industry and Technology
Defense
Opinion
Kosovo: The Final Status
Transatlantic Relations
Book Reviews

Letter from the Editor

Events Are in the Saddle, Riding our Nations

Cover Story
Contemporary Peacekeeping Is State-Building

The UN Embraces "Robust Peacekeeping," Including Use of Force
A Conversation with Jean-Marie Guéhenno, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, United Nations

The United Nations office for Peacekeeping Operations has more troops deployed in overseas assignments than any other organization in the world except the Pentagon: in the last five years, the strength of UN personnel in peace operations has doubled. In an interview with European Affairs, Jean-Marie Guéhenno explains that hard-earned lessons – some from success and some from failures – have given UN peacekeeping an impressive body of professional expertise. This professionalism and cost-effectiveness, coupled with a unique legitimacy, make the UN the leader in this “transformation” of peacekeeping as a form of conflict resolution.

Peacekeeping in Afghanistan Is Modern Crisis Management
Dutch Parliamentary Debate on Troops for Afghanistan

After an intense parliamentary debate in February, the Netherlands decided to send 1,400 additional troops to Afghanistan to help extend NATO-peacekeeping into the troubled southern provinces. It is a controversial, potentially hazardous mission. Assigned to peacekeeping, the Dutch troops may face combat with Taliban forces opposed to the Afghan government. The Dutch debate, excerpted here, offers a firsthand glimpse of the political concerns aroused by missions of this sort in many Western countries.

Humanitarian NGOs Must Not Ally With the Military
Nicolas de Torrente, Executive Director, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)

MSF believes that voluntary organizations of their type must guard their independence uncompromisingly to work with impunity on the ground. MSF also wants the freedom to speak out about abuses witnessed by its volunteers in the course of their work. Some NGO’s, he warns, are being co-opted into joint programs with armed forces, thereby lending credibility to their military campaigns – and blurring the distinction between military nation-building and the humanitarian work of NGOs.

The Peace Corps Remains Relevant and Independent
Gaddi H. Vasquez, Director, U.S. Peace Corps

To carry out its mission of development and cross-cultural understanding, the Peace Corps must maintain its status as an independent agency within the U.S. government. Director Vasquez, appointed by the Bush administration in 2001, re-affirms the commitment of the White House and Congress to protect the organization from any perception that it has structural ties to other arms of government. The organization’s first Hispanic-American leader, he emphasizes diversity among volunteers to reflect U.S. society.

Economy and Trade

"Neo-Protectionism" Can Weaken Europe
Carola Kaps, Brussels

Two years after the historic EU enlargement, the state of the union is threatened by a new protectionist wave as governments move to defend their corporate “national champions” against foreign takeovers, even from fellow-EU companies. Perhaps Europe’s business elite can overcome this reflex. In the United States, too, there is substantial opposition to foreign takeovers among American lawmakers. Does the Dubai World Ports case foreshadow more restrictions on direct investment? Yes and No.

Sluggish Lisbon Agenda Bodes Ill for Modernization
Aurore Wanlin, Research Fellow, Centre for European Reform, London

Weakened political leadership in the leading EU nations is slowing the momentum for reforms in Europe’s economies and social models. The backlash against the “big bang” enlargement has made it harder for governments to invoke “EU requirements” to push through reforms.Most of the big countries are lagging in their implementation of the Lisbon agenda’s blueprint for structural changes. The single market is helping release new business forces, but leaders need to find a more upbeat sales pitch to convince Europeans to vote for change.
 

Industry and Technology

Finland: A Global Pace-Setter in High-Tech Growth
Jorma Routti, Professor, CIM Creative Industries Management, Helsinki

In a decade, Finland transformed its depressed economy into a knowledge-intensive winner and became a world-class competitive economy. Spear-headed commercially by Nokia, the mobile-phone company, the success of technological innovation in this country was rooted in the Finnish elite’s forward-looking national gamble on education and R&D. This example could and should shape the entire European Union’s objectives and policies.

Don’t Expect the WTO to Resolve the Boeing-Airbus Dispute
Robert Herzstein, former U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade

The long-running subsidies feud between Boeing and Airbus is being taken to court at the World Trade Organization by the United States and the EU member states. But this is a case in which the problems are too complex – and the political stakes too high – for the WTO tribunal to be able to render a judgment that will be accepted and complied with by the disputing parties. And by attempting to settle the score with each other, the companies are distracting themselves from the big new challenges they both face.

Defense

French Nuclear Deterrence Doctrine: An Aggiornamento
Olivier Debouzy, former Advisor, French Atomic Energy Commission

For 25 years, French strategic nuclear doctrine has been largely in hibernation. In January 2006 President Jacques Chirac broke that official silence by spelling out an updated theory of how nuclear weapons can and should protect France’s supreme national interests – and those of its European neighbors and its allies. As declaratory policy, it is overdue, coherent and cogent.What remains to be seen is whether and how France can equip itself with the tools to accomplish the tasks that Mr. Chirac has set out.

Opinion

Democracy Cannot Be Exported at Gun-Point
Manuel Medina Ortega,Member of the European Parliament (Spain)

Democracy is advocated on both sides of the Atlantic, but it cannot be prescribed like a pill to cultures and civilizations that have developed their own millennial political traditions. The Middle East poses particular challenges in this regard, partly because countries there have an approach to society and government shaped by Islam. The author takes to task Western leaders for cultural arrogance in their advocacy of global political liberalization. The West, he says, should disengage militarily and start a patient dialogue.

Kosovo: The Final Status

Greece’s Aid and Investment Boost Balkan Economy and Stability
Alexandros Mallias, Ambassador of the Hellenic Republic to the United States

Starting in the 1990s during the break-up of Yugoslavia, Greece recognized that its interests were better served not by hoisting the national flag but by hoisting the EU flag. In the outcome on Kosovo’s status, we cannot afford to see a stabilized Kosovo and a destabilized Serbia – which would cause trouble for its neighbors. Long-run regional stability requires a win/win or at least a win/no-lose solution for Kosovo.

Kosovo Is Key to Serbia’s Future With the West
Frank G. Wisner, Jr., Special Representative to the Kosovo Status Talks, Office of the Secretary, United States Department of State

The United States believes that Kosovo must have a government with enough authority to be accountable and that a formula providing this outcome must be accepted by all parties, including Serbia, according to the U.S. representative to the status negotiations. Ambiguity about the future of Kosovo is in absolutely no one’s interest: the issue must be settled by the end of the year.

Transatlantic Relations

Russia: More Awkward, But Still Indispensable
William Drozdiak, President, American Council on Germany

Increasingly authoritarian trends in Russia run counter to the democracy agenda promoted by the United States. In Europe, there is concern about Moscow’s heavy handed approach to energy relationships and to developments in smaller nations around Russia. Diplomatically, Russia’s relations with the European Union are at their lowest point since the end of the Cold War. At the upcoming G8 Summit meeting, Western governments will need to be pragmatic, tempering their criticism with recognition that they need Moscow’s help.

What New Transatlantic Institutions?

Charles Grant, Director and Michael Leonard, Director of Foreign Policy, Centre for European Reform, London

The EU-U.S. relationship should include discussions on global strategic issues, and NATO is not the forum where Europeans and Americans want to do it. It is time for small informal "summits" without public statements and a system of selective "contact groups" for specific problems. For such a system to work, EU policy-makers need to improve their own strategic focus and agree to more flexible institutional arrangements among themselves to become a credible international partner.

NATO Can Do More for Transatlantic Homeland Security
NATO Study Group at the National Defense University

Transatlantic cooperation on combating terrorism raises doctrinal quarrels about what intellectual framework is appropriate in policy-making and what agencies should have the lead role in action. Great strides have been made toward common practices on both sides of the Atlantic in police work. A team at NDU in Washington wants the NATO summit in Riga in November to tap into NATO’s resources to supplement existing civilian efforts in the United States and in Europe.

Book Reviews

The Roots of Modern Europe

Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 by Tony Judt
Reviewed by Jacqueline Grapin

America the Indispensable?

The Case For Goliath: How America Acts As The World's Government in the Twenty-first Century by Michael Mandelbaum
Reviewed by Michael Mosettig

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