26th January 2007
Putin - Russia and the Council of Europe
If Putin does not like the Council of Europe’ democratic principles then, he should have Russia leave it !
For months now, the European Court of Human Rights, which faces a 40% annual increase of decisions in 2006, with a growth of more than 10% of new cases and of pending cases, is waiting for Russia to sign the protocol N°14 to the European Convention of Human Rights in order to improve its functioning and productivity... Read the article
15th November 2006
Dollar crisis / Euro above 1.30 USD
As early as mid-February this year, at a time when almost every analyst predicted an ever-rising dollar, LEAP/E2020 anticipated that the Eurodollar exchange rate would climb above 1.30 before the end of 2006, and envisaged a continued drop of the dollar's value all through the year 2007 (read GEAB N°2 public announcement).
On May 15, 2006, LEAP/E2020 informed its subscribers about the consequences and strategies to adopt when the Eurodollar exchange rate would reach 1.50 in 2007. Now that, as anticipated by LEAP/E2020, the Eurodollar exchange rate climbs above 1.30, our research team wishes to publicise part of the counsels given to the GEAB subscribers in May 2006, and in particular the new specificities of a dollar-collapsing world (read GEAB N°5 Investors Counsels). .. Read the article
16th May 2006
June 2006 – Beginning of phase 2 of the global systemic crisis: the phase of acceleration
Last February, LEAP/E2020 anticipated that a global systemic crisis was to be triggered at the end of March. Today, three months later, LEAP/E2020 can anticipate that the initial phase of this crisis is about to be finished and that, as soon as the beginning of June 2006, the crisis will enter a phase of acceleration. Before detailing the main features of this new phase (described in GEAB Nr5 ), LEAP/E2020 would like to clarify the 4 different phases of a global systemic crisis. .. Read the article
5th April 2006
A leaderless Europe in a leaderless world: Nothing new in the West anymore
hirac is already politically finished even if he is still formally in power for one more year to come. Villepin has shot himself down with the current CPE (Contrat Premier emploi – First Job Contract) crisis. Sarkosy’s obvious lack of vision reduces him to a pure opportunistic player. And on the Socialist Party side, the multiplicity of potential leaders is a clear sign that there is none.
UK is in a similar situation. Tony Blair keeps on getting defeated by his own MPs, and has to call the Conservatives for back up. Gordon Brown is the never ending N°2 who would like to become N°1 but does not dare to take power … a crystal-clear indicator that he is born to be N°2 … not one to lead.
Germany is not different. Angela Merkel does not even truly lead the government as she has to compromise with the SPD on almost every single issue... Read the article
31st March 2006
March 24, 2006 : M3 has ceased to be published by the US Federal Reserve
The world is left without any reliable data on the dollar-value
As announced last February 15 by Leap/E2020, yesterday March 23, 2006, the US Federal Reserve has ceased publishing M3, the most reliable indicator of the amount of USDs circulating in the world.
The Fed has also ceased publishing a number of less important indicators (such as the amount of EuroDollars, large-denomination time deposits, and repurchase agreements) which could have been used to calculate M3 on the basis of other aggregates.
It is important to bear in mind that the Fed continues to calculate M3 and the other indicators. It doesn’t cease to gather these data, but it no longer shares the information with US citizens and the rest of the world. To use a simple image, it is as if, on the eve of a war, the Pentagone suppressed GPS guidance, including for its own allies... Read the article
17th March 2006
USA-Dollar-Iran / Confirmation of Global Systemic Crisis
Nine indicators developed in this month’s GlobalEurope Anticipation Bulletin, coordinated by Franck Biancheri, out of which 5 are presented in this public communication, enable LEAP/E2020 to confirm the beginning of a global systemic crisis by the end of March 2006. The recent international trends that particularly affect the international financial system, and the preoccupying trends in the US, namely as concerns the reliability of statistics on the US economy [1], have brought our research team to conclude that this global systemic crisis is already unfolding... Read the article
17th February 2006
EUROPE 2020 ALARM / Global Systemic Rupture
The Laboratoire européen d’Anticipation Politique Europe 2020 (LEAP/E2020) now estimates to over 80% the probability that the week of March 20-26, 2006 will be the beginning of the most significant political crisis the world has known since the Fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, together with an economic and financial crisis of a scope comparable with that of 1929. This last week of March 2006 will be the turning-point of a number of critical developments, resulting in an acceleration of all the factors leading to a major crisis, disregard any American or Israeli military intervention against Iran. In case such an intervention is conducted, the probability of a major crisis to start rises up to 100%, according to LEAP/E2020... Read the article
16th February 2006
Global systemic crisis / Phase II The 4 structural stages of the speeding up of the global systemic crisis
On the 15th of May 2006, in GEAB N°5, LEAP /E2020 announced that phase II of the global systemic crisis – the so called « acceleration phase »
- would start in June 2006 and that it would be characterised by a general awareness of the existence of such a global systemic crisis.
The strong and ongoing fall of all stock exchange indicators all over the planet in the past weeks clearly shows the start of this acceleration phase of the crisis , which has now become obvious to all economical and financial players... Read the article
8th December 2005
Why the rift between the US and the EU can only widen unless … ?
The rift between the US et the EU can only widen. I will just mention two recent factors (among many) pushing in that direction : on the one hand, the current collapse of UK’s credibility in Eastern Europe to seriously promote an alternative to any Franco-German vision of Europe’s future; on the other hand, the growing number of contentious issues of which the last one is the current CIA rendition planes and jails in Europe... Read the article
3rd November 2005
Four Transatlantic beliefs to forget in order to undertake successfully the aggiornamento of the EU-USA relationship
The Transatlantic relationship is entering a more dangerous era than the period of high tensions generated by the invasion of Iraq. At least at that time, the issues and the positions of each player seemed to be crystal-clear. Today, every single aspect of the EU/USA relationship is getting blurred, generating a widely spread interrogation about its very nature, and therefore about its very future... Read the article
27th September 2005
National political elites in complete denial of EU voters’ main message: ‘we want YOU to change’
In the past 6 months, about 270 millions EU citizens (or 60% of total EU population) have faced major voting opportunities. In the five countries where those elections or referenda took place a similar pattern is clearly emerging. In cases of legislative elections, the ‘winning’ political party does not represent more than 20% of the electorate thanks to major abstention and a growing dispersion of the votes. In cases of referenda, the parties in power and representing the ‘usual’ alternative (Conservative or Socialist) were largely defeated, with a very high voters turn-out... Read the article
29th July 2005
Are Bush, Blair and Berlusconi killing the ‘West’?
Before the invasion of Iraq, on several occasions, I warned my US friends and the very few Europeans in favour of such an attack, that this war would not only bring chaos and increase the gap between Muslims societies and the Western world; but that it would also break ‘the West’ into two parts. Some countries would follow the path of the current US administration, while a growing number would follow a European approach embodied (only in a negative, resisting way in 2002/2003) by France, Germany and Belgium... Read the article
24th June 2005
Launch of new European political party
Newropeans, the first trans-European political movement for the democratisation of the European Union has been launched. It will present candidates in all EU member states in the 2009 European elections.
The party has been created because Europe and democracy are too important to be left in the hands of national parties and of bureaucrats alone and because democratising Europe is the task of all European citizens.
Newropeans is the result of 20 years of work for Europe and will present candidates at the 2009 European elections in all EU member countries all with the same programme... Read the article
20th June 2005
Bringing the EU enlargement process to a constructive end
Whatever promises the pre-referenda EU system made, they only commit those who believed in those promises and the system which made them! This system is dying in front of our eyes. And its ‘decisions’ for the future of the EU are joining the land of ‘lost promises’.
Take Turkey. For more than a decade, I have been warning my Turkish friends that they should not believe the EU system and its political leaders when they were pledging to get Turkey on board of the EU. Since 1995, I have been pleading for the launch of a ‘Neighbourhood policy’, including a ‘Privileged Partnership’ with Turkey. And after the European Summit in December 2004, I wrote in Newropeans-Magazine that this decision will not last (but will generate the defeat of the Constitution’s referenda) and that it will lead very soon to the ‘Privileged Partnership’ option (see: ‘Et maintenant en avant toute pour le partenariat Prévilégié!’)..... Read the article
3rd June 2005
The Inevitable process of differentiation Euroland / European Union
Since 2003, Europe 2020 has considered as highly probable the appearance of a European crisis resulting from the failure of the Constitution’s ratification process. For this reason, Europe 2020 has been thinking for a long time already about possible alternatives to the Constitution. This reflection took shape along the various internal discussions, interviews with EU political and administrative officials, and debates with the European civil society; and also included elements drawn from the public debates that developed around the ratification processes... Read the article
27th May 2005
The seventh consequence of a Dutch and French « No »
If both French and Dutch reject the project of Constitution in the coming days, 6 obvious consequences are to be anticipated; however a seventh less obvious one could be the most serious of all in case the future European political forces and leaders are not fully up to the resulting challenge.
First consequence: The Constitution is dead and buried contrary to what is being said here and there. The ratification process will stop by lack of political will on the part of the remaining member-states. Not one political leader will want to commit an « electoral suicide » by defending a text notoriously rejected by two founding-countries. The case of Portugal is eloquent where polls show that the Yes has dropped from 90% three months ago (i.e. before the French debate started) down to 40% (vs 30% for No)... Read the article
18th May 2005
French Referendum:the obsolescence of French political elites
What is happening in France today with the referendum on the European Constitution is certainly not a specific French issue but it has a very specific French dimension: the obsolescence of its political elites regarding the European project. Indeed it is not only a French political crisis because it is already impacting on the whole of the European Union, generating a new ‘wave’ of interrogations regarding the Constitution project and, more deeply, the current state of the EU political system... Read the article
4th April 2005
Supporting democracy in the Arab world: the dual failure of EU and US strategies
Each of them is claiming to “know” the best strategy to spread democracy in the Arab world. The European Union leadership pretends to believe that its trade policy towards the region, such as its “association agreements”, twinned with a very smooth political attitude regarding local dictators will in the end emulate a process leading to democracy in the Arab world. On the other hand, the Bush’s administration pretends to believe that by defeating Saddam Hussein, and talking a lot about aggressively promoting democracy and freedom in the region, they will rapidly obtain a new democratic Arab world. .. Read the article
8th March 2005
European Babies may be on their way back home
For at least 3 decades, the European Union has been facing two negative trends regarding its population’s evolution. First, there is a general decline of birth rate all over Europe; second, there was a ‘benign neglect’ from most of EU governments and institutions regarding this question. At least for the second trend, it seems that a reversal is on its way; which may lead to a drastic change of the first one. Indeed in past weeks, two major governments which used to feel estrange to the problem though it was crucially affecting their countries, Germany and UK[1], have started to react. Of course, as ‘natalist policies’ still suffer from the negative image of early 20th century... Read the article
24th January 2005
Cassini-Huygens: No life on Titan, but life still exists for Transatlantic Cooperation
Further than the Moon or Mars, further than any place a human-made artefact ever landed, this is the successful mission accomplished by the remarkable EU/USA cooperation named ‘Cassini-Huygens’.
Worldwide TV and media coverage, people (especially kids) fascinated by the images, frenzy for scientists, … and this was not about a natural disaster or a human expression of rage (such as wars or terrorists attacks)... Read the article
19th January 2005
US International Education : Saving Student Ryan!
The level of international awareness in American students has been collapsing in a dangerous manner throughout the last two decades.
This situation has deteriorated in the past 10 years due to the gradual decline in the US military presence in Europe which in fact played the role of a large-scale "youth exchange programme"... Read the article
7th January 2005
Seven key questions for Transatlantic Leaders and Citizens about future EU/USA relations
Sometimes editorials can also be about asking people’s opinions, rather than expressing the writer’s ones. Today is definitely the case.
At a time when the ‘usual’ Transatlantic relation inherited from World war II is every day becoming more obsolete than the day before, it is time for both leaders and citizens of both sides of the Atlantic to ask themselves a few questions. Here are seven..... Read the article
21st December 2004
Towards an EU-Ukraine Privileged Partnership, but no EU or Nato membership
Let's talk about the next 20 years. No more, no less. This is the time of a generation. Many trends which will affect this period of time are already existing now. It is then up to us to try to identify them, to understand where they may lead; and then to choose which of the possible roads we want to build.. Read the article
14th December 2004
A US unilateral military move concerning Iran will break NATO in pieces
This is the topic for ‘real guys’ for more than 4 years now. I remember coming back from some meetings in Washington DC, 4 years ago, and telling my European friends: ‘some people over there are really serious about attacking Iraq, but what they really want is to go after Iran’. At that time in Europe almost nobody was believing that the US will indeed invade Iraq. Now most Europeans mixed feelings about the Iran scenario: on the one hand, they..... Read the article
7th December 2004
The Muslim world couldn’t care less about about the EU taking Turkey or not
Contrary to what promoters of Turkey’s entry in the EU, short of arguments, repeat, this decision would not improve the relations between the EU and the Muslim world; in fact it would probably deteriorate them.
I have already explained in these pages why I think the restrictive perspective of taking Turkey aboard the EU will empower..... Read the article
1st December 2004
December 17th 2004: the day the European Council
All around the EU, and in particular in countries where referenda on the EU Constitution will take place, the question of possible Turkey’s accession to the EU has become, by far, the prominent topic of people’s discussions when it comes to EU’s future. And, if one agrees to ignore the surveys and polls paid either directly by Turkish money, or by pro-Turkish lobbyists, the simple fact is that a very large majority of European citizens (from 60% to 90% depending on the country) are opposed to it. Leaders could..... Read the article
25th November 2004
The European Union confronted with the challenge of its own democratization
An immense democratic/political "depression" is in the midst of being created in the very heart of European continental politics. The 200 million voters that chose not to participate in June 2004 are the proof. The Euro has broken the certainty of 350 million Europeans. Europe has entered their pockets, and seemingly, just as rapidly, entered their heads as the evidence that important decisions were escaping their national boundaries. The Euro is the link that joined tens of millions of Europeans in discovering that their work, their social system, their health system, and the economic growth of their country depended essentially on European decisions made in common, and no longer on national political parties. We have hence moved from abstentions of "disinterest" in 1999, disinterest in a Europe perceived as far away and without consequences on daily life, to abstentions .. Read the article
22nd November 2004
Iraq : towards another electoral masquerade
“Masquerade” is definitely the word which fits best the current US policy in Iraq. For Iraqis themselves, the world which describes best their own situation is “tragedy”. And now masquerade goes one step further with the soon to be hold “democratic elections”.
Iraq elections are indeed set to be organized on January 30th 2005. Here is what the US governor of Iraq, Mr. Negroponte, and his Iraqi spokesman, Mr. Allaoui, have decided. .. Read the article
5th November 2004
USA 2004: the sickman of world’s democracies?
While I was looking at the huge queues outside polling stations on November 2nd, I wondered about two very simple facts: how many Europeans would have left such queues, refusing to wait for 2, 3, 4, or even 7 hours (like in some places in Ohio) for casting their votes? How many Europeans will the next day take the street to denounce such a flaw within the electoral process? I came.. Read the article
29th October 2004
The future of Transatlantic Relations is not anymore what it used to be ?
Most probably, by next November, a new administration will be elected in the US. There is no wishful thinking about it (though 90% of Europeans do expect that G.W. Bush will loose). But changing to Kerry’s administration will not by itself makes EU/US relations successful. Of course the new administration will be able and willing to listen and start a true discussion over all major issues..... Read the article
25th October 2004
It is not the European project initiated in the 50s which has no future: it’s people like Rocard and Cohn-Bendit
Contrarily to what supposed to be ‘political leaders’ such as Michel Rocard or Daniel Cohn Bendit are saying, the EU integration project as dreamed in the 50s is not dead, but what they stand (60s/70s) for and what they are in the political arena is indeed dead. It is not the EU political future which belongs to yesterday; it’s they and their friends who do have no political future... Read the article
13th October 2004
If I was a Turkish leader, what would I tell my people about the future of our relations with the EU?
An artificial exercise, you tell me, because I am not a Turk! In part you would be right, but it is an exercise that I have realized a number of times in Turkey, as part of several conferences. With hope of proving wrong the Turkish proverb "the wise man does not say what he knows, the buffoon knows not what he says," the following is what I would tell my people if I was a Turkish leader... Read the article
27th September 2004
Two examples of new EU security interests linked with the next US elections
Contrarily to most European comments on the topic of the US November 2004 elections, in this article I will point out a few key EU interests which are not dependent upon the election’s results. Whoever wins the presidency, be it Kerry or Bush, the EU should be prepared to act by contributing to secure a smooth US election process and, should things go awry, in preventing a global economic and financial crisis.
.. Read the article
13th September 2004
A European proposal for a US exit strategy in Iraq or how can the US succeed in stabilizing Iraq while cutting back 100.000 US troops ?
When those four key elements will have been agreed upon by all parties (today one can say that almost everybody on this planet, including governments supporting the US coalition, already share these convictions, except for the current US administration and maybe 40/50% of US people), then time will be ripe for implementing the plan itself which is made of 3 simple ideas:.. Read the article
8th September 2004
Teaching the EU to the US : The European Union Centers Need Brussels’ Continued Support and A Long Term Strategy
One of the often cited weakest links in the American education system is the lack of international teaching, in history, languages, social issues and just about every other realm. When Americans do tend to study the rest of the world, we tend to focus on those events, moments, or programs that we created turning a deaf ear to many other noteworthy endeavors. The European Union is definitely an endeavor as..... Read the article
2nd September 2004
Russia/ the Caucasus Region, Israel/ Palestine, USA/ Iraq : Colonialism is a major threat to 21st century peace
Colonialism, yes! A word everybody was thinking lost in the past, and more precisely the European past. Well today it is back as one of the major threats to world peace.
Today it is no longer Europe that is the cause of such a danger. Europeans paid a moral price too high for colonization and went through a process of de-colonization too painful to be willing to go for it a second time.
.. Read the article
28th June 2004
The future of Transatlantic Relations is not anymore what it used to be
Most probably, by next November, a new administration will be elected in the US. There is no wishful thinking about it (though 90% of Europeans do expect that G.W. Bush will loose). But changing to Kerry’s administration will not by itself makes EU/US relations successful. Of course the new administration will be able and willing to listen and start a true discussion over all major issues on the Transatlantic agenda. Europeans will therefore be very willing to prove that they genuinely were against the Bush administration’s positions and not at all against the USA... Read the article
25th June 2004
If NATO wants to survive, it should do nothing in Iraq now … and wait until next November
In the last days, we have seen a huge propaganda machine at work aimed at convincing European and American people that NATO would soon do something in Iraq and that its coming Summit in Istanbul was to be the time and place for the decision to be taken... Read the article
23rd June 2004
Yes to the Constitution … But only if E-mmunities are suppressed
A big step forward for the European Union has been made with the adoption of the EU Constitution. Indeed Euroskeptics have big reasons to be depressed: this document is putting the EU on the course of becoming a mature political entity of its own. Not a State, not a SuperState, but something unknown yet to political science. A true 21st century political object... Read the article
2nd June 2004
Suppress Guantanamo as first step to restore constructive Transatlantic Relations
US political debate is finally discovering the extent of damages created by the invasion of Iraq to the US image in the world and therefore to US international capacity of action. Presidential candidate Kerry made a speech on this very topic yesterday while former Vice-President Al Gore delivered a very strong attack against Bush’s foreign policy and its major operators (Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, …)... Read the article
25th May 2004
The collapse of international education in the USA : a direct threat to future Transatlantic relations
‘There is no great leader if he is not able to provide good education to his community. There is no great 21st century leader if he is not able to provide good international education to his community.’.. Read the article
19th May 2004
A European proposal for an exit strategy from Iraq
In the present circumstances Iraq has no way out from chaos. Quite the contrary: everyday seems to bring even more confusion and sense of tragedy: militia fights, jail abuses, terrorist attacks, bitter oppositions within the US, soaring human and financial costs of US occupation, lack of leadership and vision, collapse of the ‘coalition of willing’.. Read the article
17th May 2004
EU's man in Washington should be a politician not a bureaucrat
Everybody is aware, in the European Union as well as in the USA, that Transatlantic relations are facing challenges not seen since 1945.
The invasion of Iraq created a profound and widening gap between European public opinions (even where governments decided to support Washington) and current US policy... Read the article
25th March 2004
Transatlantic Leadership: Defining tomorrow’s new Transatlantic game
Transatlantic leadership is no more. The Iraq crisis has completely ruined the foundations of what used to be Transatlantic leadership since 1945: an overall confidence of European citizens and governments in US capacity to lead them towards a common better future... Read the article
23rd March 2004
Atlantic Rim : the future of Transatlantic relations
As we all know, since Christopher Colombus found his way to America, the Transatlantic relation was a 4 players game: South America, North America, Europe and Africa. It is only during 19th century and mostly all along 20th century that the concept became synonymous of Northern Atlantic relations involving solely Europe and North America.. Read the article
16th March 2004
International Education : the only cement for any Transatlantic Bridge
Think of this seemingly stupid sentence :‘the world is getting globalized!’. It does contain something not stupid though as it is true that in today’s world all local issues are now interconnected. From Irak’s war to jobs outsourcing, from scientific research to religious trends, everything happening on our small planet is now directly echoed in almost every parts of it.. Read the article
12th March 2004
Middle East 2020 : the region which needs two “dreams”
Two years ago, at the first Miami Transatlantic Week, participants and speakers from two sides of the Atlantic declared that it was time for both European and American civil societies to help Arabs and Israelis to build up a peaceful and democratic Middle East. In following months, almost every Transatlantic “expert” found totally absurd the whole idea of any long term Transatlantic effort in this region.. Read the article
10th March 2004
Laicity vs Politically Correctness: a 21st century’s fight
Contrary to what many may think, 21st century main fight will not occur between religions, but between two secular ways of looking at the future of our societies. One the one hand, you find the concept of laicity, coined in France’s post-revolution year, resulting from a will to free politics and the state from any religious influence and established in France and some other countries in the early years of the XXth Century; on the other hand, you find “political correctness”, a loose doctrine generated in the USA from 1970s on, trying to give all communities within a society an ‘equal’ status.. Read the article
4th March 2004
Affirmative action : An absurd way to integrate children of immigrants in Europe
Lately, further to the September 11 attacks and resulting speeches about the dangers of immigration, Islam, etc…, we saw on one hand the collapse of the « tolerant » politics implemented in countries of recent immigration - like Northern European countries, and on the other hand the strengthening of integration policies in countries of ancient immigration - like France.. Read the article
27th January 2004
EU-Turkey 2004: the year of living dangerously
2nd part
If we cannot say ‘yes’ or ‘no’, then the only way out is to change the question! First of all, let’s be clear, this option is not just a European one: many Turks do not see accession to the European Union as their country’s best future. But those Turks most of the time end up in jail because these opinions have not been ‘politically correct’ for the past 40 years.. Read the article
22nd January 2004
EU-Turkey 2004: the year of living dangerously
- 1st Part -
After a 40 year-long policy of lies implicitly serving each party’s interests, and once the next row of enlargement is achieved, the time will be ripe for the masks to fall off as to the integration of Turkey to the European Union. However if simple “yes-no” answer cannot be given to that question, why not change the question itself..... Read the article
12th December 2003
Let’s support Arab political unity in order to achieve Arab world democratisation
It is time for Europeans to understand that democracy is indeed a key issue in the Arab world whether in the ‘US zone of influence’ or within the ‘European one’. President Bush may be wrong in almost every aspects of his policy towards the Arab world. But he is right when he says that democratisation should be put on top of Western priorities when dealing with the Arab world. Though, this being said, the US should also recognize that they do not have the faintest idea of how to implement this objective.. Read the article
14th November 2003
FrancoGermans at the forefront
For the first time since the creation of Germany in 1870/71, the French and the Germans have found themselves on the same side, in the front line, at the time of a major international crisis. Not only were they together, but they also defended a position which turns out to have reflected the opinion of a vast majority of Europeans, from Romania to Ireland - a position that, day by day, incrementally appears more justified: as it is not countered by any sound arguments that legitimise the war against Iraq... Read the article
2nd September 2003
The ashes of Baghdad are falling upon the US
After holiday recess, TIESWEB op-eds, ‘Transatlantically Incorrect’, are back on track. Significantly, Transatlantic Vision section has been merged with Incorrect one … because we believe that there is no way anymore to have any meaningful vision of future EU/US relations while staying politically correct. So much for the dominant flow of academic, think-tanks and experts contributions to major newspapers or specialized foreign policy magazines!.. Read the article
24th June 2003
Washington and Brussels are from the Moon...
… though of course they do not come from the same side of the Moon!
This is something I learned in past years and it seems to me that the Iraq crisis illustrated it. Washington comes from the bright side of the Moon and shines all over the world under global media spotlights; while Brussels, coming from the dark side of the Moon, is pretty much invisible to everybody, including European citizens. But despite these 'light' differences, the key thing is that they do not belong to Earth... Read the article
5th June 2003
Is the EU weaker or stronger after this crisis?
For many people in Europe or in the US, the answer to this question seems obvious: the EU comes out weaker. Just take a look at the picture: on the one hand, US forces easily defeat Saddam's army, showing US supremacy at war; on the other hand, European countries are completely divided upon the question of the course Europe should take on Iraq issues. No need to go any further: Europe is weaker than ever. .. Read the article
20th May 2003
US officials in the Convention? OK, in exchange of EU officials in the Senate or Supreme Court !
The CIIS just released a very audacious proposal in favour of having US top officials participating in the Convention on the Future of Europe.
It could be a very efficient way indeed to rebuild EU/US relations and prevent further Transatlantic drift ... provide it would be a two-way process. Otherwise not only does it stand no chance to be accepted, but pushed forward as such it would precisely increase the drift between the two continents as Europeans will see it as another imbalanced US approach of EU/US relations. Pushed forward this way it could only make Europeans think that the drift is rooted in the whole of US elite's vision and not only into G.W. Bush administration... Read the article
15th April 2003
Forget about healing transatlantic wounds; now it's about building a new partnership
Current Iraq/UN crisis between Europeans and Americans have clashed with deeply rooted European trends and will generate long term consequences
Whatever some would like to believe on both sides of the Atlantic, the consequences of the Iraq/UN crisis will have long, sustainable consequences. What they embody is the end of the post WWII order which first big crack was the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989. In many ways, current Iraq/UN crisis will generate effects of the same magnitude: the US led 'West Side Story'... Read the article
17th March 2003
Upon whom will the ashes of Baghdad fall down?
In May 1997, in Washington, at the 'Bridging the Atlantic: People to People' conference, organized by State Department, EU Commission and Dutch Foreign Affairs, we (a bunch of European and American citizens coming from NGOs and academia) invented TIESWEB in order to increase the relations between European and American civil societies because we were convinced that Internet will boost the influence of citizens in the sphere of international relations... Read the article
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