New York Times (January 24)
“The world will remember Trump’s Greenland outburst.” The President’s “immoral threats against a loyal NATO ally have escalated a crisis in U.S.-European relations, weakened one of history’s most successful alliances and hurt American interests in tangible ways…. Leaders in Beijing and Moscow are no doubt thrilled. America is less safe than it was a week ago.”
Tags: Alliances, Ally, Beijing, Crisis, Escalated, Europe, Greenland, Immoral, Less safe, Moscow, Nato, Outburst, Threats, Thrilled, Trump, World
The Economist (October 4)
“Vladimir Putin is testing the West—and its unity.” Whether it’s “drones over Poland” or airspace incursions, “mysterious explosions and assassinations” or cyber-attacks, “Vladimir Putin is waging a grey-zone campaign against NATO: a cheap, deniable and calibrated effort to unsettle Europe that is carefully short of outright conflict…. NATO must resist Russia’s efforts to corrode it from within.”
Tags: Airspace, Assassinations, Calibrated, Campaign, Conflict, Cyber attacks, Deniable, Drones, Europe, Explosions, Grey-zone, Incursions, Nato, Poland, Putin, Testing, Unity, Unsettle
New York Times (June 1)
“While the United States of America seems to be coming apart, the United States of Europe — the 27 members of the European Union — have stunned everyone, and most of all themselves, by coming together to make a fist, along with a number of other European nations and NATO, to stymie Putin’s invasion.”
Washington Post (March 17)
In terms of seizing Ukraine, “the extent of Putin’s failure is breathtaking.” He has, however, successfully “unified the West, prompted NATO to beef up its military spending, kick-started a resurgence of pro-democratic sentiments… and made himself the poster boy for war crimes.… Meanwhile, Russia’s economy is in shambles, losing decades of progress and perhaps permanently damaging the country’s energy markets.”
Tags: Breathtaking, Economy, Failure, Military spending, Nato, Pro-democratic, Putin, Resurgence, Russia, Ukraine, War crimes, West
Deutsche Welle (June 7)
“Donald Trump seems to finally be making good on his threat …. to punish Germany.” The sudden move to remove 9,500 troops is “misguided.” It “does not make military sense” and “has shown once again that NATO’s European members cannot rely on the commander-in-chief in the White House. It is a wake-up call for Europeans to take the initiative when it comes to their own defense, and actually spend more money on it.”
Chicago Tribune (October 24)
“Turkey’s military assault has been widely condemned by its NATO partners…. Yet, what truly threatens the future of NATO is less Turkey’s latest provocation than the fact that it was enabled by Trump’s sudden decision to withdraw U.S. forces standing in the way of that action.”
Tags: Condemned, Enabled, Military assault, Nato, NATO partners, Provocation, Threat, Trump, Turkey, U.S., Withdrawl
New York Times (July 12)
“Sorry, NATO. Trump doesn’t believe in allies. Europe has to understand that in the American president’s twisted worldview, there are only fans and enemies.” European are “doomed if they think the issue now is how to salvage their alliance with the United States. The time for that has passed…. The challenge now for the leaders of Europe is learn to live in a world where America has no allies.”
Handelsblatt Global (July 11)
“Donald Trump is in Brussels surrounded by unhappy faces and that’s not just Belgian soccer fans. The US president is attending the summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the rumble started before the first round of coffee.”
Financial Times (October 8)
Isis looks poised to capture Kobani and much of Syria’s border with Turkey. Will this finally jolt Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, out of his ambivalence? “If he is to retain the confidence of his longstanding allies, Mr Erdogan should move decisively against Isis and put an end to international perceptions that he is willing to dally with this deadly foe.”
Forbes (September 29)
Vladimir Putin might “move against the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia” in an attempt to further weaken NATO. “Given the West’s responses to Russia’s invasions of Georgia and Ukraine, Putin may well be tempted to make a series of probes, after slicing and dicing Ukraine. He won’t send in troops and armor, as he’s done in Ukraine, but he’ll see what unrest he can create to start ‘softening up’ the Balts to become political vassals of Moscow.”
Tags: Baltic, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moscow, Nato, Putin, Russia, Troops, Ukraine, Unrest
