To the extent that Gazprom represents a Russian tool for waging politics by other means, the emerging shift in European attitudes toward the company’s Nord Stream and South Stream pipeline projects signals that when it comes to energy security, the EU has adopted an “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” approach. Yesterday, during Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s visit to Paris, French energy giant GDF Suez announced it would be taking a 9 percent stake in the Nord Stream project in order to secure increased Russian deliveries from 2015. And today, the EU’s energy commissioner said that the South Stream [...]
I’ve mentioned on a few occasions now the dramatic difference between European and American public opinion on the security vs. privacy balance. The latest example comes from Germany, where the constitutional court struck down a law requiring telecom companies to save customer phone and internet data for six months, due to privacy concerns. What’s interesting here is that the national law that was struck down was mandated by an EU directive that allowed for saving the data for up to 24 months. The assumption is that the U.S. gets better data-sharing deals in Europe on a bilateral level than EU-wide, [...]
At an event last week at New York University, four men who know the Taliban better than most Westerners shared their perceptions of the group behind the insurgency fighting coalition forces in Afghanistan. What emerged was a portrait of shadowy figures, little understood by even those who have had close contact with the group. With “reintegration” now the “buzzword du jour” and calls for a negotiated settlement to the war gaining momentum, we have yet to understand just who it is we will be negotiating with. “We still understand very little about the Taliban,” said Alex Strick van Linschoten, echoing [...]
