Section: The German Marshall Fund of the United States (USA)
What to Watch in 2016: GMF Experts Look at the Year Ahead
Transatlantic Take2015 was a tumultuous year for the transatlantic partners. The refugee crisis, terrorist attacks, Russian aggression, and economic issues dominated discussions on both sides of the Atlantic in ways that would have been difficult to predict at the start of the year. What will 2016 bring? More of the same? Or are new issues...
Transatlantic 2015 – The Year in Review
At the start of 2015, the Kremlin looked to be the biggest concern for the transatlantic partners. But the terrorist attacks on the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris in January quickly changed that calculation. The even deadlier attacks also inspired by the self-proclaimed Islamic State group (ISIS) in Paris and San Bernadino, California, toward...
A New Episode in EU-Turkish Relations: Why so Much Bitterness?
The EU-Turkey Summit on November 29, 2015 has been described as a revitalization of EU-Turkish relations after years of inertia. Some very promising, concrete actions with associated timelines are mentioned in the summit conclusions, such as regular high-level meetings, the opening of new chapters, further dialogue in energy cooperation, and the...
(Assessing) German Defense Policy: Between New Responsibility and Ongoing Crises
Since the speeches delivered by President Joachim Gauck, Minister of Foreign Affairs Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Minister of Defence Ursula von der Leyen at the 2014 Munich Security Conference, Germany has seen a debate on new responsibilities in its foreign and security policy. This new ambition, changes in the international environment, and...
Awards Granted for the Third Round of Alumni Leadership Action Projects
The Transatlantic Leadership Initiatives (TLI) team at GMF is pleased to announce the winners of the third Alumni Leadership Action Projects Competition. GMF was able to grant fourteen awards: five in the U.S. and nine in Europe. All proposals proved to be substantive, interesting, and compelling. The finalists represent: a range of regions a...
NATO on the Right Path from Assurance to Deterrence
“The security of NATO members on both sides of the Atlantic is indivisible.” This sentence was adopted by the 28 NATO heads of state and government at the Lisbon Summit in 2010 as part of the current NATO Strategic Concept. With the Lisbon principle, Allies once again underscored that there is one inseparable security area for all its members,...
Addressing the Russian Energy Challenge: Why Regulation Trumps Geopolitics
Energy Geopolitics are Back in Europe In European capitals, an increasingly assertive Russia has triggered renewed concerns related to the security of EU gas supplies. EU leaders have vivid memories of January 2009 when Russian gas supplies were cut for 13 days, affecting a total of 16 EU member states. Clearly, the ongoing Ukraine crisis has...
Putin’s Power Play in Syria
At the end of September, Russia began conducting air strikes in Syria, ostensibly to combat terrorist groups. The strikes constitute Russia’s biggest intervention in the Middle East in decades. Its unanticipated military foray into Syria has transformed the civil war there into a proxy U.S.-Russian conflict and has raised the stakes in the...
Merkel’s Year of Crisis Leadership
Transatlantic TakeIt was German Chancellor Angela Merkel who “stepped in” to keep Europe together when “not once or twice but three times this year there has been reason to wonder whether Europe could continue to exist,” says the TIME article that names her person of the year. In the course of the decade that Angela Merkel has governed Germany,...
The West’s Silver Lining in Turkey-Russia Tensions
The fallout from Turkey’s shooting down of a Russian warplane that violated its airspace over Thanksgiving week has continued to reverberate with regional and global implications. Moscow’s reaction has been predictably fast and furious, stopping short of armed retaliation but including almost everything else against Ankara, including...
