| NATO strategy “ineffectual” and “misguided”, says Afghan President |
| Afghanistan - Thursday, September 02, 2010 |
| Afghan President Hamid Karzai has branded NATO’s counter-insurgency “ineffectual”. “The experience from the last eight years shows that fighting in Afghan villages is not effective and only causes civilian casualties,” he said. While stressing that the government remains committed to a significant NATO troop presence, he also demanded that international forces stop invasive night raids on residents' homes and distance their soldiers from "the daily life of the people.” |
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| Gaddafi asks EU for 5 billion to fight illegal immigration towards Europe |
| Border Security - Wednesday, September 01, 2010 |
| Libya’s Colonel Muammar Gaddafi has requested 5 billion euros annually from the EU if it wishes to crack down on illegal immigration from his African state and prevent the onset of what he called a “black Europe.” “We don't know if Europe will remain an advanced and united continent faced with this influx of starving and ignorant Africans," he warned. |
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| Britain adds national security as criteria for overseas development aid |
| Homeland security - Monday, August 30, 2010 |
| Britain’s Conservative-Liberal coalition administration is secretly planning to “securitise” the country’s overseas aid budget by requiring all new projects in the developing world to make a "maximum possible contribution" to British security and defence needs. In real terms this means that part of the 6 billion pound international development budget can now be diverted to bolstering defence and anti-terrorism projects. |
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| Germany to conduct major restructuring of military |
| Defence cuts - Friday, August 27, 2010 |
| German Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg has proposed shrinking the country's military by one third and effectively abolishing the draft in a move that would dramatically transform the third biggest member of the NATO coalition in Afghanistan. The decision comes at a time when the defence ministry has been ordered to shave €8 billion from its budget within 4 years as its contribution to an overall austerity package and against the backdrop of growing public discontent over the country’s involvement in Afghanistan. |
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| France’s “anti-Roma summit” increases discomfort for EU institutions |
| Border security - Wednesday, August 25, 2010 |
Paris is set to host an “immigration summit” in September following the strong controversy stirred by France’s deportation of scores of Roma back to Romania and Bulgaria. The list of invitees has raised eyebrows for including interior ministers from the member states that have been most vocal in demanding more stringent border controls, such as Italy and the UK. There is no place, however, for representatives from Romania, Bulgaria and Poland which are the states from which most internal-EU migration originally stems.
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| NATO and Europeans Plot Path Ahead |
| Security and Defence Agenda - Thursday, May 06, 2010 |
The New York Times reports on the Security Jam as "an unusual online effort by NATO, the European Union, governments and a coalition of think-tanks, led by the Security and Defence Agenda to ask a broader public for ideas on the future of Western security policy which produced a series of recommendations that call for NATO to develop a civilian arm and the European Union to create its own intelligence agency".
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