Atlantic Council

Retired brigadier and author Allan Mallinson writes in the Times of London that the special relationship between the UK and the US "needs repair work."

China is angry with the Europeans. Why? Because EU President Nicolas Sarkozy has (crime of crimes!) met with the Dalai Lama. This is China's problem, but some have suggested otherwise and blamed the EU. Relations between the EU and China have been strained this year according to Asia Times columnist David Gosset.

Washington and London have proposed dropping the NATO MAPs for Georgia and Ukraine, favoring instead an open-ended development plan to bring both countries closer to membership. While Germany and France protest such unorthodoxy, this more flexible approach may allow NATO to prudently balance its interests with Russia and for eventual Georgian-Ukrainian expansion.

Here is a paradox to consider: The implementation of the Bush Administration’s counter-terrorism strategy has been more successful than anyone could have expected and yet the threat from violent jihadist groups remains undiminished. 

At the new year, France will hand over the EU presidency to the Czech Republic.  In addition to a probable marked decline in summits (Mr. Sarkozy's specialty as of late), the incoming Czech leadership has many European bureaucrats worrying: the French successor, Czech president Václav Klaus, is a fervent Euroskeptic. 

Atlantic Council chairman and National Security Advisor-designee Jim Jones continues to get widespread plaudits.  While Hillary Clinton is a household name and Bob Gates is an incumbent getting widespread praise for his performance, Jones is a relative unknown outside establishment circles.  

Pakistani security forces have conduced a raid on a major Laskhar-e-Taiba training camp and captured a dozen terrorists, including Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, allegedly the mastermind of last month's Mumbai massacre.  It remains to be seen whether these are in fact the responsible parties and what follow-up action will be taken.

As the world gears up for the UN Climate Change extravaganza (UN Framework Convention on Climate Change or UNFCC) in Copenhagen in December 2009, achieving a serious accord to establish post-2012 commitments that could slow or halt global warming increasingly appears a mirage. This was foreshadowed in the failure of last week's preparatory meeting in Poland.

A prankster put India and Pakistan on the brink of war.  That this is possible demonstrates just how fragile that relationship is. That it didn't escalate, though, tells us something important, too.

Tim Fernholz, a writing fellow at The American Prospect, explains "Why Jim Jones Will Make or Break Obama's Foreign Policy."