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1432. Missile Defense in NATO: A French Perspective
- Author:
- Bruno Gruselle
- Publication Date:
- 11-2010
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Atlantic Council
- Abstract:
- In France, missile defense comes with a long and complicated history. When the U.S. Congress passed the "National Missile Defense Act of 1999," which called for the development and deployment of a U.S. national missile defense system, Paris reacted negatively. At that time, France still considered missile defense to be both unnecessary and destabilizing. French policy makers still considered the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty and the doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction to be the cornerstones of strategic stability. French thinkers viewed missile defense as jeopardizing both the doctrine and the Treaty, as well as risking a new arms race with Russia.
- Topic:
- Defense Policy, Arms Control and Proliferation, and Nuclear Weapons
- Political Geography:
- Russia, United States, Europe, France, and North America
1433. Adapting the U.S.-EU Summit for a Globalized World
- Author:
- Annette Heuser and Frances G. Burwell
- Publication Date:
- 11-2010
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Atlantic Council
- Abstract:
- The U.S.-EU Summit has lost its moorings. The Obama administration's decision on January 31, 2010 to postpone the May 2010 U.S.-EU Summit was a tacit recognition that the Summit lacks clarity of purpose and strategic vision. Neither side had successfully articulated any particular reason to meet. While Obama's decision was largely based on domestic political calculus, the move prompted some deep soul-searching in Brussels. Confidence in Brussels about the new administration's commitment to the U.S.-EU Summit process, and to working with the EU in general, reached a low point when Anne-Marie Slaughter, the Director of Policy Planning at the U.S. State Department, said that the Summit should take place “only when necessary.”
- Topic:
- NATO, Globalization, and International Cooperation
- Political Geography:
- United States, Europe, and North America
1434. Hitting the Reset Button on U.S.-Russia Cooperation
- Author:
- Stephan M. Minikes
- Publication Date:
- 12-2010
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Atlantic Council
- Abstract:
- For many years, I have been engaged in debate with other foreign policy practitioners over the question of whether the United States and Russia should work together. An improved U.S.-Russian relationship offers the prospect not only of improved cooperation on areas of mutual bilateral interest, but also enhanced cooperation within multilateral institutions such as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) where I was the U.S. Ambassador between 2001 and 2005.
- Topic:
- Diplomacy, Economics, and Bilateral Relations
- Political Geography:
- Russia and North America
1435. American and Chinese Power after the Financial Crisis
- Author:
- Joseph S. Nye, Jr.
- Publication Date:
- 10-2010
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Washington Quarterly
- Institution:
- Center for Strategic and International Studies
- Abstract:
- The United States has been widely blamed for the recent financial crisis. As the U.S. economy floundered and China continued to grow in the great recession of 2008—2009, Chinese authors launched ''a flood of declinist commentary about the United States.'' One expert claimed that the high point of U.S. power projection was 2000. The Chinese were not alone in such statements. Goldman Sachs advanced the date at which it expects the size of the Chinese economy to surpass the U.S. economy to 2027. In a 2009 Pew Research Center poll, majorities or pluralities in 13 of 25 countries believed that China will replace the United States as the world's leading superpower. Even the U.S. government's National Intelligence Council projected in 2008 that U.S. dominance would be ''much diminished'' by 2025. President Dmitri Medvedev of Russia called the 2008 financial crisis a sign that the United States' global leadership is coming to an end, and even a sympathetic observer, Canadian opposition leader Michael Ignatieff, suggested that Canada should look beyond North America now that the ''the noon hour of the United States and its global dominance are over.
- Topic:
- Government
- Political Geography:
- Russia, United States, China, Canada, and North America
1436. Editorial
- Author:
- Terry Terriff, John Ferris, and Jim Keeley
- Publication Date:
- 06-2010
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
- Institution:
- Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
- Abstract:
- In April 2010, the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies (CMSS) convened a conference, Canadian Reserves on Operations: Lessons Learned, in cooperation with the Chief, Reserves, Canadian Forces and the Canadian Defence Foreign Affairs Institute (CDFAI). The CMSS would like to thank its sponsors, the Canadian Forces, the Security and Defence Forum of the Department of National Defence and the University of Calgary for their generous support of this project. This conference examined the current roles of the Canadian Forces (CF) Reserves in all aspects of Canadian defence, with special reference to the current tempo of operations. Military and academic experts from across North America discussed the challenges faced by CF reservists, within both their military and civilian careers and lives, especially the issues of sustainment and retention within the framework of domestic and international or expeditionary operations. Discussions between panelists and participants, especially several young reservists in the audience, were open and frank.
- Political Geography:
- North America
1437. Domestic Operations and Reserves
- Author:
- Gerry Champagne
- Publication Date:
- 06-2010
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
- Institution:
- Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
- Abstract:
- Provide a robust Command capable of delivering a comprehensive, integrated, adaptive, and networked force to deter, prevent, pre-empt and defeat threats and aggression aimed at Canada and North America as well as supporting civilian authorities for the security, stability and support of North America and its approaches.
- Topic:
- Security
- Political Geography:
- North America
1438. Fracture Lines: Will Canada's Water Be Protected in the Rush to Develop Gas?
- Author:
- Ben Parfitt
- Publication Date:
- 10-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto
- Abstract:
- On October 14, 2010, POWI released a discussion paper and held a conference on Fracture Lines: Will Canada’s Water Be Protected in the Rush to Develop Shale Gas? The conference and the discussion paper were the first major formal public discussion in Canada of the shale gas issue. As supplies of fossil fuel dwindle, oil and gas companies are increasingly looking to unconventional sources such as shale gas to supply energy needs. The Fracture Lines paper outlined the potential impacts of shale gas exploration and production on groundwater resources, and described the paucity of groundwater mapping and lack of effective regulatory oversight. With possible shale gas deposits in BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick and a loud public outcry against shale gas drilling in Quebec, the conference attracted a wealth of attention. Because of its availability in both languages and its timeliness, the conference received extensive media coverage and over 500 logins to the webcast. In the wake of the conference, the research contained in the Fracture Lines report was determined to be a major factor in the decision to expand the terms of reference for a Parliamentary Committee studying offshore drilling issues in Canada. The Committee opted to include shale gas in its deliberations. The issue of how to protect groundwater resources from the impacts of shale gas exploration continues to be a burning issue, across Canada and around the world.
- Topic:
- Climate Change, Environment, Oil, Water, and Gas
- Political Geography:
- Canada and North America
1439. Calypso's Cosmopolitan Strategy: Race, Nation, and Global Culture in Postwar Canada
- Author:
- Michael Eldridge
- Publication Date:
- 06-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition, McMaster University
- Abstract:
- What I mean to do in this essay, then, is trace calypso’s trajectory across the historically porous U.S-Canada border, in order to take fuller measure of its international ambitions in the mid- twentieth century. In the process, I hope to shine a light on West Indian influence over the layout of the Canadian mosaic and the logic of Canadian multiculturalism, well before that word became a catchphrase of government policy and part of the mythology of Canadian identity. But I also want to puzzle out what Canadians’ embrace of calypso during this same period signified. That, more than anything, will help us understand what sort of symbolic work calypso was doing in the True North. Canadians, of course, are famously, chronically anxious to distinguish themselves from Americans, and so I’ll concede from the start that calypso per se may have played a less direct role in calming nerves about race and national identity north of Niagara than it did in the U.S. I want to argue nevertheless that the full story of calypso in Canada still involves considerable tension over those fraught topics. And so the more significant distinction to draw, I think, is that the Canadian jitters sprang from a very different set of demographics, as well as from a rather different relationship to the history of British Empire and Commonwealth, than their American counterparts. Before we evaluate Caresser’s job performance as Canada’s hired projectionist, then, we would do well to review some of the salient facts.
- Topic:
- Nationalism, Race, Culture, and Multiculturalism
- Political Geography:
- Canada and North America
1440. How Did a Domestic Housing Slump Turn into a Global Financial Crisis?
- Author:
- Steven B. Kamin and Laurie Pounder DeMarco
- Publication Date:
- 01-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
- Abstract:
- The global financial crisis clearly started with problems in the U.S. subprime sector and spread across the world from there. But was the direct exposure of foreigners to the U.S. financial system a key driver of the crisis, or did other factors account for its rapid contagion across the world? To answer this question, we assessed whether countries that held large amounts of U.S. mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and were highly dependent on dollar funding experienced a greater degree of financial distress during the crisis. We found little evidence of such “direct contagion” from the United States to abroad. Although CDS spreads generally rose higher and bank stocks generally fell lower in countries with more exposure to U.S. MBS and greater dollar funding needs, these correlations were not robust, and they fail to explain the lion’s share of the deterioration in asset prices that took place during the crisis. Accordingly, channels of “indirect contagion” may have played a more important role in the global spread of the crisis: a generalized run on global financial institutions, given the opacity of their balance sheets; excessive dependence on short-term funding; vicious cycles of mark-to-market losses driving fire sales of MBS; the realization that financial firms around the world were pursuing similar (flawed) business models; and global swings in risk aversion. The U.S. subprime crisis, rather than being a fundamental driver of the global crisis, may have been merely a trigger for a global bank run and for disillusionment with a risky business model that already had spread around the world.
- Topic:
- Financial Crisis, Global Financial Crisis, and Housing
- Political Geography:
- United States and North America