From Hillary Clinton, the Council on Foreign Relations:  As Dean Acheson put it in 1951, the ability to evoke support from others is quite as important as the capacity to compel.

From Ahmed Rashid, the Financial Times:  For weeks there has been a spectre haunting European corridors of power. That spectre is [Gen.] David Petraeus.

From Daniel Dombey, the Financial Times:  The US and the European Union may hold a summit in Lisbon in November, to make up for President Barack Obama’s decision not to attend such a meeting in Spain earlier this year.

Annette Heuser, Executive Director of The Bertelsmann Foundation, speaks with Atlantic Council senior fellow Sarwar Kashmeri in the latest installment of the New Atlanticist Podcast Series. Heuser discusses The Bertelsmann Foundation's efforts to establish a strong transatlantic bridge between the U.S. and Europe, without preference to any one European country or region.

From Craig Whitlock, the Washington Post:  The U.S. military is on the verge of activating a partial missile shield over southern Europe, part of an intensifying global effort to build defenses against Iranian missiles amid a deepening impasse over the country's nuclear ambitions.

From Adm. James Stavridis, U.S. European Command:  First, before we decide we don’t think NATO matters, let’s do a little “comparative shopping.”  Practically speaking, NATO has the best pool of partners we will have in the world for the foreseeable future.

From Sam Nunn, Igor Ivanov, and Wolfgang Ischinger, the International Herald Tribune:  No other initiative has more near-term potential to ease the NATO-Russian relationship out of its petulant, impacted state, while giving a positive jolt to the revived but tentative

From José María Aznar, Foreign Policy:  The United States and its allies have all the tools at their disposal to defeat our shared enemies. Success will depend on three basic commitments: American leadership, a stronger Europe, and a common transatlantic vision.