Ronald D. Asmus

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MundoCáucaso

After Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's recent visit, the Obama administration wants to prove it has a strategy to deepen ties with allies such as Poland while it pursues a reset with Russia, so it has sent Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on a whirlwind tour of Central and Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus. The trip also seeks to blunt conservative criticism that Washington is sacrificing allies for the sake of reconciliation with Moscow.

The administration has tried to pursue a twin-track strategy: reengaging Russia while upholding the core principle that these countries have the right to choose their own foreign policies and reject Moscow's claims of a sphere of influence.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAméricaEuropa, ,

As Washington and Moscow zero in on a new strategic arms control treaty, it is time to look at what lies ahead in U.S.-Russian relations. The greatest gap between Western and Russian thinking today may not be on Afghanistan or Iran. It may well be on Europe. The first signs of the unraveling of the European security system built after the Cold War are evident.

Almost unnoticed in the U.S. media, Moscow last month proposed a new draft treaty on European security -- thus making good on President Dmitry Medvedev's call after the Russo-Georgian war of August 2008 for changes to the current system.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAméricaEuropaInternacionalOTAN, ,

President Obama's decision to shelve the Bush administration's missile defense plans has created a crisis of confidence in Washington's relations with Central and Eastern Europe. The defense architecture the administration proposes may make more strategic sense in addressing the immediate Iranian threat. Nevertheless, it runs the risk of shattering the morale and standing of transatlantic leaders in the region who now feel politically undermined and exposed. The roots of this crisis lie less in missile defense than in policy failures over the past decade. Understanding and rectifying those errors is key to getting back on track with our allies.

Our first mistake was being overly optimistic about what would happen when these countries joined NATO and the European Union.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión EuropeaDefensa y Seguridad

Among the foreign policy challenges facing President-elect Barack Obama is the need for a new strategy toward Russia. Moscow is a partner and competitor: We need to work with the Russians on issues such as Iran and counterterrorism, but Moscow today is also a nationalistic revisionist power bent on rolling back Western values and influence on its borders with Europe. Russia is seeking major changes to the ground rules of European security, a desire underscored recently when Moscow pressed the West to agree to a new European security charter proposed by President Dmitry Medvedev.

This initiative has hardly been noticed in Washington, but it is time to pay attention.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica,

The Post asked foreign affairs analysts and other experts for their take on what the candidates should discuss in the first debate. Here are thoughts from: David M. Walker, Karen Donfried, Michael O'Hanlon, Patrick Clawson, Ronald D. Asmus, Stephen P. Cohen, David Makovsky, Michael Rubin, Nancy Soderberg, Danielle Pletka and Michael J. Green.

David M. Walker, former comptroller general of the United States, president of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation.

The conditions that led to our current financial turmoil are also present in connection with the federal government's finances. Unfortunately, the stakes for the government are even higher and no one will "bail out America" if we don't get our fiscal house in order.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoCáucasoEuropa, , ,

En los últimos tiempos, hemos afirmado que Rusia estaba llevando a cabo una política de cambiar el régimen de Georgia y a su presidente prooccidental y democráticamente elegido, Mijaíl Saakashvili. Predijimos que, a falta de una intervención diplomática fuerte y unida de Occidente, se avecinaba una guerra. Ahora, trágicamente, la escalada de la violencia en Osetia del Sur ha culminado en una invasión declarada de Georgia por parte de Rusia. Occidente, especialmente Estados Unidos, podría haber prevenido esta guerra.

No está claro del todo qué ocurrió en Osetia del Sur la semana pasada. Cada bando contará su propia versión. Pero sí sabemos, sin ninguna duda, que Georgia reaccionó ante las repetidas provocaciones de los separatistas de Osetia, controlados y financiados por el Kremlin.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoCáucasoEuropa, , ,

In weeks and years past, each of us has argued on this page that Moscow was pursuing a policy of regime change toward Georgia and its pro-Western, democratically elected president, Mikheil Saakashvili. We predicted that, absent strong and unified Western diplomatic involvement, we were headed toward a war. Now, tragically, an escalation of violence in South Ossetia has culminated in a full-scale Russian invasion of Georgia. The West, and especially the United States, could have prevented this war. We have arrived at a watershed moment in the West's post-Cold War relations with Russia.

Exactly what happened in South Ossetia last week is unclear.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoCáucasoEuropa, , ,

There is war in the air between Georgia and Russia. Such a war could destabilize a region critical for Western energy supplies and ruin relations between Russia and the West. A conflict over Georgia could become an issue in the U.S. presidential campaign. How they respond could become a test of the potential commander-in-chief qualities of Barack Obama and John McCain.

The issue appears to be the future of Abkhazia, a breakaway province of Georgia and the focus of a so-called frozen conflict. The real issue, however, is Moscow's desire to subjugate Tbilisi and thwart its aspirations to go west. For several years, Russian policy toward countries on its borders has been hardening.…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalOTAN

The last year of a president's term can be a moment of opportunity. Liberated from political constraints, a president can do something controversial but right. But he can also cut corners while trying to score a final success and make a mistake.

In the coming weeks, the Bush administration will decide whether to push to enlarge NATO again at an alliance summit this spring. It is President Bush's last hurrah on the transatlantic stage. The administration is proposing to extend invitations to Albania, Croatia and Macedonia. I was one of the earliest proponents of NATO enlargement, but I believe such a move would be a mistake.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión Europea

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has indicated his willingness to bring France back into NATO. It is an offer the United States should not refuse. Earlier in my career, I was a hard-liner on France and NATO. In fact, when I stepped down from the State Department in 2000, the French ambassador to Washington was so relieved he toasted my departure at a European Union ambassadors' lunch because of my dogged pursuit of U.S. interests. (I considered it a back-handed compliment.)

But times change, and so should our thinking.

First, Sarkozy's opening to the United States and NATO is real and represents a critical shift in French thinking.…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalOTAN

Russian President Vladimir Putin's bellicose speech at the Munich security conference on Feb. 10 has caused some to revive their arguments against enlarging NATO. The policy was wrongheaded because it produced the nationalist policies that emanate from Moscow today, they say. NATO expansion was a bad idea, they argue, because it enraged the Russians and prompted them to elect a former KGB officer and cold warrior as president. The only thing we got out of NATO enlargement, they say, was the Czech navy.

The critics were wrong when they opposed adding nations to the alliance in the 1990s, and they are still wrong.…  Seguir leyendo »