With the EU growing at the speed of global population while resources melt away, the Union’s interest is increasingly defined on a global scale. Will its Diplomatic Service be able to safeguard these interests? And what future for Europe’s relations across the Atlantic and to the emerging great powers in Asia?

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10 March has a double significance in the history of Tibet. On that day in 1959 the Dalai Lama fled the Chinese occupation.
On March 10 2008 Tibetan monks took to the streets of Lhasa protesting Chinese oppressive policies. The Chinese authorities brutally suppressed the uprising. Until today, there has been no independent investigation of those [...]

The historical struggle in Washington about Health Care Reform went mostly under the horizon of the European mainstream press, lastly.  One understands why. The procedure got stuck, last autumn, in the dark alleyways of US decision-making on the f…

The following interview appeared in Global Times on 15 March 2010:
Editor’s Note:
China constantly complains of being misperceived by the West, but how much of that is China’s own fault? Do Europeans still see China through an ideological lens, or does China fail to present itself in a way acceptable in the modern world? Global Times (GT) [...]

Yesterday’s post reported on the non-attendance of Premier Wen Jiabao at the small leaders’ meeting on 17 December.  Wen’s explanation of what happened was the same as previously reported in the Chinese media, except that the latter said that the meeting was held by the US.  Wen did not repeat this.  It’s hard to understand [...]

This story about Catherine Ashton’s deputies was published by EurActiv on 15th March 2010.
Catherine Ashton, the EU’s recently-appointed foreign policy chief, will be able to trim her busy work schedule and counter criticism of her lack of visibility thanks to the assistance of three EU commissioners, who will act as her deputies.
Štefan Füle, the Czech [...]

Writing in BusinessWeek on 12 March, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman said global economic growth would be about 1.5% higher if China stopped restraining the value of its currency and running trade surpluses.   “We should not be afraid of what the Chinese might do if we pressure them to stop this currency manipulation,” Krugman said.
Krugman [...]

This morning in Beijing, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao explained at his press conference what actually happened in Copenhagen on 17 December 2009 on the eve of the UN Climate Change Conference, which gave rise to criticism of Chinese behaviour and even allegations of arrogance.  It is remarkable that this is the first official version of [...]

My blog post of 12 March reported Premier Wen Jiabao, in his annual address to the National People’s Congress, stating that corruption threatened the rule of the CCP.  China’s former state auditor, Li Jinhua has, in the official ‘People’s Daily’ on-line, identified the business dealings of Party officials as the main source of public dissatisfaction.  [...]

The US Treasury, in its semi-annual report delivered every April and October, can formally label China as a “currency manipulator” on account of the yuan’s substantial undervalue.  This would allow the Department of Commerce to impose countervailing duties on a wide range of Chinese products.
US Treasury Secretary-designate Timothy Geithner told the Senate Finance Committee at [...]

Corruption has always been addressed by Premier Wen Jiabao in his annual address to the National People’s Congress, but this year he went much further than before by stating that corruption threatened the rule of the CCP. 
In his speech on 5 March 2010, the Premier affirmed  that the battle against graft would be a critical [...]

The decision of Northrop Grumman and EADS not to bid on the tender to supply the US Air Force with $50 billion worth of air refuelling tankers is very disturbing.  They won the contract in 2008 but, after Boeing’s protest, a new tender was issued, with the technical terms sufficiently changed so that the larger [...]

This year’s Halki International Seminars focused on the role of the transatlantic institutions in helping local stakeholders address security challenges in the Middle East, the Black Sea and Southeastern Europe. In the interview that follows, Prof. Sh. Feldman discusses his views on the Middle East issue.
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“democracies make elections, elections don’t make democracies”
The counting of Millions of votes cast in Iraqis elections is going on to choose the right ones from more than 6,000 candidates from 86 political groups to gain seats in the 325-member assembly. Some violence occured - 38 citizens were killed and around 100 were wounded in result [...]

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This story about the new EU diplomatic service was published by EurActiv on 5th March 2010.
The birth of the European External Action Service, one of the most anticipated innovations of the Lisbon Treaty, will be a difficult one, admitted a top European Commission official yesterday (4 March).
João Vale de Almeida, director-general at the European Commission’s [...]