by Daniel Korski | Mar 30, 2009 | Conflict and security, Cooperation and coherence
Now that President Obama has laid down his AfPak strategy, it is time for European governments to follow suit. As I show in this new ECFR brief, they have not yet done enough to become full partners in NATO’s Afghan mission. In an excellent brief issued at the same time as mine, Shada Islam and Eva Gross, two European foreign policy wonks, make a similar case.
European governments have in particular failed to provide staff to civilian bodies like EUPOL, the office of the EU special representative to Afghanistan, or the NATO civilian representative’s office. And while many European governments have pushed for the UN to take on a stronger role in policy development and coordination, few have given the UN mission in Afghanistan and Kai Eide, The UN’s special representative, the necessary support, staff or resources, either in New York or Kabul.
European governments all talk about the “comprehensive approach” -– the need to mix civilian and military instruments — but in the north and central parts of the country, where I just visited (see my travel blog here), there is little evidence of such a policy. Despite the decision last year to bulk up the EUPOL mission to 400 people, actual staffing levels remain at less than half this figure, with many European countries having no personnel in the mission at all.
European governments must do better. In bullet form, they should help:
1. Safeguard the elections
2. Relaunch reconciliation
3. Improve security by training the army and police
4. Change the counter-narcotics policy
5. Target development
6. Support regional diplomacy
I develop each point in the brief with concrete ideas for European leaders to pick up.
The EU has underinvested in the Afghan mission for years. With the coming US surge, the Afghan elections looming, and failure in the region a real danger, it needs to change course. Not only is it in Afghanistan’s interest; it is also in Europe’s.
by Alex Evans | Mar 29, 2009 | London Summit
Dani Rodrik has found the following quote from HG Wells, writing in 1933. From the text, you might wonder whether Wells’ writing on time machines was altogether fictitious – actually, he’s writing about the other London Summit: the one held 75 years ago. Deja vu? Mmm hmm…
[For] some months at least before and after his election as American President and the holding of the London Conference there was again a whispering hope in the world that a real “Man” had arisen, who would see simply and clearly, who would speak plainly to all mankind and liberate the world from the dire obsessions and ineptitudes under which it suffered and to which it seemed magically enslaved. …
Everywhere as the Conference drew near men were enquiring about this possible new leader for them. “Is this at last the Messiah we seek, or shall we look for another?” Every bookshop in Europe proffered his newly published book of utterances, Looking Forward, to gauge what manner of mind they had to deal with. It proved rather disconcerting reading for their anxious minds. Plainly the man was firm, honest and amiable, as the frontispiece portrait with its clear frank eyes and large resolute face showed, but the text of the book was a politician’s text, saturated indeed with good will, seasoned with much vague modernity, but vague and wanting in intellectual grip. “He’s good,” they said, “but is this good enough?”
Read the whole post. H/t Duncan Green.
by Charlie Edwards | Mar 28, 2009 | What we're watching
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uwOL4rB-go&feature=related[/youtube]
by Richard Gowan | Mar 27, 2009 | Economics and development, Europe and Central Asia, North America, Off topic
The Lede gives us the lowdown on how they do political rhetoric in Prague:
To anyone who heard echoes of AC/DC when the Czech prime minister assailed President Barack Obama’s stimulus plan, calling it “a road to hell” on Wednesday: You were right.
It turns out that the heavy metal band AC/DC played a show in Prague last week which was attended by Mirek Topolanek, the country’s prime minister. Mr. Topolanek, who is now just a caretaker prime minister, after losing a vote of confidence this week — one unrelated to his flights of rhetorical fancy — told a Czech newspaper that he was influenced by one of the group’s most famous songs, “Highway to Hell,” when he veered off script this week during his speech before the European Parliament and criticized Washington’s stimulus spending.
“AC/DC played here last week,” Mr. Topolanek told the daily Lidové Noviny. “And their cult song ‘Highway to Hell’ might have led me in that very improvised speech to use the phrase ‘road to hell’.” According to the Czech newspaper, Mr. Topolanek’s prepared remarks included the less resonant phrase “the way to destruction.”
Fair enough, but what about those of us who heard echoes of Chris Rea? He, after all, sang specifically about a “road to hell” – not just a highway. It makes a difference. AC/DC’s hell-oriented highway sounds quite fun:
Living easy, living free
Season ticket on a one-way ride
Asking nothing, leave me be
Taking everything in my stride
Don’t need reason, don’t need rhyme
Aint nothing I would rather do
Going down, party time
My friends are gonna be there too
I’m on the highway to hell
By referencing this, Topolanek was presumably implying that the U.S. stimulus package is (i) poorly thought-out (“don’t need reason, don’t need rhyme”) and (ii) protectionist (“asking nothing, leave me be”). Now compare this with Rea’s bleaker vision:
Stood still on a highway
I saw a woman
By the side of the road
With a face that I knew like my own
Reflected in my window
Well she walked up to my quarterlight
And she bent down real slow
A fearful pressure paralysed me in my shadow
She said ‘son what are you doing here
My fear for you has turned me in my grave’
I said ‘mama I come to the valley of the rich
Myself to sell’
She said ‘son this is the road to hell’
On your journey cross the wilderness
From the desert to the well
You have strayed upon the motorway to hell
So, had Topolanek been thinking of Rea rather AC/DC, his critique would have taken a Leftist/populist turn, implying that the U.S. stimulus represents a sell-out to the rich (i.e. Wall Street). The stuff about the desert might also be interpreted as a complex reference to Iraq’s impact on the American economy – while the “motorway to hell” might be a nod to plans to invest stimulus dollars in America’s infarstructure.
Next time Mr Topolanek decides to free-style in the European Parliament, he had better think through the potential for textual deconstruction first.
