National Security Council related content 

European Commission offers support, member states assess implications for counter-terrorism. The European Union has begun a review of its counter-terrorism efforts in...

From dealing with a national tragedy to annoying Obama, who shone, and who stank, during the year. The year's end is time to offer bouquets and brickbats to the stars and...

Obama has dramatically improved security for Poland and the Baltic states. So why do they feel sidelined? The Riga Security Conference is Latvia's big annual shindig: this...

Some familiar faces come to the fore. In the aftermath of the UK general election, some of the backstage participants in the campaigns came to the fore – and they proved...

Obama's envoy to NATO is an intellectual heavy-hitter, well-versed in diplomacy. The post of US ambassador to NATO has traditionally entailed – alongside its obvious...

France's Europe minister is a combative Atlanticist and long-time loyalist of Nicolas Sarkozy. For France's President Nicolas Sarkozy, there are three types of appointment....

Who the new US president chooses for top foreign policy jobs has the world watching. With Barack Obama's presidency less than three months old, it is too early to assess how...

EU import ban on US beef top of agenda. Ron Kirk, a former mayor of Dallas, has been confirmed as the United States trade representative by the US senate. Just hours after...

EU calls for “immediate end to hostilities” as fighting in South Ossetia threatens to pull in Russian and Abkhazian forces. The EU has called for an “immediate...

EU tightlipped after Iran fails to meet deadline to international offer to freeze sanctions. The EU's foreign-policy chief, Javier Solana, spoke this morning with the...

Last Sunday (2 December) millions of Russians voted ostensibly for a new parliament (Duma). But in reality they were voting for the man who has dominated Russian politics for...

EU negotiations with Serbia could be resumed next week and a Stabilisation and Association Agreement, a stepping stone to EU membership, could be concluded by the end of the...

The debacle over choosing the next Turkish president, with opposition parliamentarians boycotting the vote last Sunday (6 May), is above all about settling the country's...

Turkey today (26 April), begins the process of appointing its next president. In Ankara the Grand National Assembly – the Turkish parliament – will hold its first vote...

Those shaking their heads about US foreign policy in recent years should have a look at who has been running it. Current Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was an academic...

The EU and the US would each appoint a senior-level official to manage transatlantic economic relations, according to plans being drawn up for the EU-US summit on 30 April....

Hearts sank as rumours of the appointment were confirmed. Ali Larijani, the 49-year-old former revolutionary guard, the man who had compared any concessions on Iran's nuclear...

The chances are slim - to vanishing point - that the UN Security Council could agree on a resolution tough enough to hold Iran's nuclear ambitions in check. On the other...

The EU and Iran will restart talks today (Wednesday 21 December) in the latest bid to end the two-year standoff over Iran's nuclear weapons programme. Diplomats are expected...

With days to go before the first round of voting in Iran's presidential elections, the issue that has defined Iran to the outside world in the last year, the country's...