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 | Daily News Brief March 27, 2014 |
Top of the Agenda
Obama Urges Europe to ‘Step Up’ Security Commitments
U.S. president Barack Obama urged a tighter bond with European allies in a speech in Brussels on Wednesday,
discussing Russia's annexation of Crimea with allusions to the broad
sweep of the continent's twentieth-century history: both the violence
wrought by industrial technology and nationalism in the two world wars,
and also the security architecture and democratic values embodied by
NATO and the European Union that emerged in their aftermath (WSJ). After meeting with EU leaders and the NATO secretary-general earlier Wednesday, Obama expressed concern about reduced defense spending, calling on European allies to "chip in" for mutual defense (Boston Globe). Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund announced a rescue package to stabilize Ukraine's government worth up to $18 billion (FT).
Analysis
"For
some frustrated with the complexity of the post-Cold War world,
redividing the globe along an East-West axis would be comforting. … It would become a self-fulfilling prophecy
that strengthens autocracy in Russia and increases the likelihood of
Russia reverting to what the West considers a rogue state. Other nations
that have reason to resent what they see as an imposition of Western
values would view Moscow as a leader of an independent coalition of
states dedicated to protecting national sovereignty. It will be the
world Putin wants," writes Ann-Marie Slaughter in the Washington Post.
"The Obama administration should focus on supporting Kiev rather than punishing Moscow.
That means using its leverage with Europe to ensure that this support
sticks, and that Ukraine's new government does nothing to provoke an
extreme response. This will require an acknowledgment of Russia's core
interests and America's limitations — and an end to empty threats,"
writes Ian Bremmer in the New York Times.
"With
European fears of Russian revanchism growing, the United States needs
to demonstrate unequivocally the strength of its commitment to Europe.
The TTIP, which several weeks ago looked like a detailed, bureaucratic
negotiation over tariffs and regulatory rules with the promise of modest
economic pay-offs, has now become a test of the transatlantic partnership," writes CFR's Edward Alden.
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