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Nawaz Offers Views on Changing Pakistani Perceptions of U.S.
Shuja Nawaz, Director of the Atlantic Council's South Asia Center, was interviewed on The Takeaway morning radio news program on the Pakistan flood situation. The discussion focused on the U.S. being the single largest donor of aid, and the potential for Pakistanis to shift their perceptions of America. However, Nawaz warns of the long-term effects of America's goodwill, stating that "changing image takes a long time."
South Asia Center's Shikha Bhatnagar Spotlighted
Shikha Bhatnagar's recent appointment as Associate Director of the South Asia Center of the Atlantic Council, is yet another manifestation of a growing trend of second generation Indian Americans' advent into leading Washington, DC think tanks as senior policy analysts and associates.
Chuck Hagel Discusses START Ratification on RussiaToday
Atlantic Council Chairman Chuck Hagel was interviewed for RussiaToday on delays in ratification of the START treaty in both the U.S. and Russia.
FEATURED ISSUE
In August the sunny calm and quiet that is a Swedish summer will be shattered by the impact of Joint Direct Attack Munitions dropped by F-16CM Fighting Falcons from US Air Force Europe.
EU President Vaclav Klaus Condemns EU
James Joyner | February 20, 2009
In a truly bizarre display, Czech President Vaclav Klaus, who holds the rotating EU presidency, yesterday compared the institution to the Soviet Union. Constant Brand for AP:
Klaus is known for deep skepticism of the EU and has refused to fly the EU flag over his official seat in Prague during the Czech presidency, saying the country is not an EU province.
He said current EU practices smacked of communist times when the Soviet Union controlled much of eastern Europe, including the Czech Republic and when dissent or even discussions were not tolerated.
"Not so long ago, in our part of Europe we lived in a political system that permitted no alternatives and therefore also no parliamentary opposition," said Klaus. "We learned the bitter lesson that with no opposition, there is no freedom."He said the 27-nation bloc should concentrate on offering prosperity to Europeans, rather than closer political union, and scrap a stalled EU reform treaty that Irish voters have already rejected.
Klaus said that questioning deeper integration has become an "uncriticizable assumption that there is only one possible and correct future of the European integration." "The enforcement of these notions ... is unacceptable," Klaus said. "Those who dare thinking about a different option are labeled as enemies." Observers had been expecting Klaus to deliver a critical speech during his first and only visit to the EU chamber at a time when his country holds the EU limelight as chair of the 27-nation bloc.
"I have never experienced a situation where the presidency of the European Union ... compares the EU with the Soviet Union," said Belgian lawmaker Ivo Belet.
Still, Tobias Wolny argues, "The Czech EU presidency has done a good job so far, managing a number of unexpected international and domestic issues over the last two months. And the Czechs deserve more credit from fellow European leaders in the current debate on protectionism." He contrasts this with Nicolas Sarkozy's attempts to shut down auto building in the Czech Republic and bring those jobs home to France and Angela Merke's passivity on the issue.
The Czech agenda in the first two months of its EU presidency has not been an easy one. As if the financial crisis, Lisbon and the energy and climate package weren't enough, the Czechs had to coordinate the European position in the Gaza war the Russian Ukrainian gas row. Coincidentally, it is during the presidency of a former Soviet bloc country that we are witnessing the first signs of improvement in relations between the EU and Russia after the war in Georgia. This may have more to do with the low oil price and Russia's economic woes than with Czech diplomacy, but at least the Czechs are not hindering this process.
Wolny also makes the fair point that Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, not Klaus, is the country's head of government and that Klaus' Euroskepticism does not reflect official Czech policy.
Nonetheless, while I'm somewhat sympathetic to Klaus' go slow approach to expanding the scope of the EU's power, thinking deepening makes more sense than broadening at this juncture, this was a bizarre rant coming from an EU president. And there are better ways of making the argument than a harangue.
James Joyner is managing editor of the Atlantic Council. AP Photo by Thierry Charlier.
Comments
I think Mr Klaus is out of control, he is not behaving like a head of state but as a pundit who is using his position to sell his books about greens being watermelons being red inside and comparing the EU to the Soviet Union. No matter the EU brought unprecedented rights and influence to the Czech people or and it was embraced in former Soviet-ruled countries by 75-85% margins on referendums. He behaves very similarly in the United Nations. I wonder why the Czech do not impeach him: his 'diplomacy' may be a good book-seller but gives a lot of headache to the actual Czech diplomacy, leaves his country with very few political allies and public sympathy and not a single new political friend.
What was bizarre about it? He was only saying what many ordinary people in Europe think. Of course, us ordinary people have no voice in the EU. Take the Constitution (sorry, I mean the Lisbon Treaty): the EU commissars (sorry, I mean High Officials) say that only Ireland said no. Well, that's because only Ireland got a vote. Mr Klaus is a breath of fresh air, and not afraid to recognise the elephant in the room.
PS: The titles of the bureaucrats in Brussels - the High This and the High That - sound like people from a G&S operetta. How can anyone take them seriously? Except that the EU is deadly serious, and certainly no joke. Just a blight.
PPS: However, the European "Parliament" certainly is a joke!
It is really a joke.
What a remarkable individual he is.
Would that he or Havel would become the next President of the European Commission.
D2
Dear President Klaus. My husband and I hear that your country ia very beautiful place to be. Bob says it really nice also to learn so much about you and your Mother Russia Counry, on the computer. My husband and I live here in the United States in Lake Los Angeles in the Antelope Valley. I hate to say that we don"t have a very good President right now and not a good staff either. One day we woke up and the people in the Antelope Valley along with the Sherriff Department are torturing and harrassing Robert Bishop and Bonita Bonita Thomas in their own homes. We have a nice home at 38523 156th Street East Lake La. on Christmas Day the Sherriff Department a long with an incest family ring decided to join together and rig our pipe lines under our home and administer nerve gas and all kinds of different toxins through our home. They have been doing this for 8 monyhs straight and we are very uncomfortable and unhappy from it. It got so uncomfortable I had to leave and go live at the Arbor Court at44916 N. 10th Street West #277 Lancaster California. They have a gas line outside my home and the same people are torturing mme as well in my own home. They also run in both of our homes and tranquilize and poison our food. Its all the time even when we go out to fast food places such as Jack In the Box And Arco and Mcdonalds. Even the Winchells donut house almost every where we go. While Bob is a sleep they have keys that they have had made from a locksmith that is illegall and come in and drug his Pepsi with narcotics and poison. He enjoys getting up at 5 am withour cat Muffett And having a cigerette and a Glass of Pepsi and watching the news He doesn"t deserve this and is a real gentleman I suppose like yourself. I love him all to pieces President Klaus And I don"t see where this is going to end. Can"t see who they are they run around all day and all night on drugs and yell and scream and brag about what they do to both of us. They have ruined my bank account at Bank of America and the sheriff department sends phoney letters to Mr. Bishop saying he has no more Medi-Cal insurace when he does and arranges phoney phone calls like from our Vet. to come in and have shots and they do this behind our backs. Right now sir iam typing on my computer there is a hose ran down the wall and a gas is makuing me dizzt and going into my personal areas and is so painful. Excuse me but it is true. Robert Allen Bishop And Bonita Thomas are in their 50"s and being tortured in our homes in the United States And a lot of people know about it and aren"t making it stop. The sheriff Department and the incest families are trying to railroad and push Gene Simmons And His lovely wife Shannon Tweed and kids around with friend Paul Stanley and his wife and kids. They have property here and they should be treated right just like anywhere else in this world I think they would like to come and visit Robert and I in our home from a E-Mail and they are trying to prevent that. So I close my E-Mail asking if you might have the time to adress our government and put a stop to our in humane torture and pain we are very nice people and love one another very much Thank you for your time Bonita Thomas. P.s. I had bought tickets to your Moscow Cat Company for my husbands Birthday in Febuary and they sent me a letter that you had cancelled you engagement at the Performing Arts Theater on Lancaster Blvd. California due to some kind of politics between you and our government. I really cried and think that they lied and was being mean to just me. I think that sounds really terrible it"s suppossed to be a fun thing. Thank you very much and I hope you and your family have a pleasant day in Russia. Bonita I am sorry about what I said " Our president is a sweetie pie andwe love him he"s the best ever. OOPS! ****
They have been doing this for 8 monyhs straight and we are very uncomfortable and unhappy from it.
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