EDITORIAL

Tassos Symeonides
(RIEAS Academic Advisor)

Copyright: Research Institute for European and American Studies (www.rieas.gr) Publication date: 10 July 2016

History is often encapsulated in a few memorable words uttered by leaders confident they have the world by the horns. The disastrous Iraq war has now gained its own memorable words: “Act now, explain later.” The confident talker of these words was Tony Blair, the British prime minister who had struck a “special relationship” with US President George W. Bush. With a 12-volume special report on how the UK slid into war in Mesopotamia now published, Mr. Blair’s callous advice to his American colleague has claimed its permanent place in history...Read more

Tassos Symeonides
(RIEAS Academic Advisor)

Copyright: Research Institute for European and American Studies (www.rieas.gr) Publication date: 3 July 2016

It is now one week since the “surprising” decision of the British people to take the UK out of the European dis-Union and the wrath, spite, and the heaping of abuse upon the “bigots” and “fascists” who dared defy Brussels and Berlin, is swelling beyond control...Read more

Tassos Symeonides
(RIEAS Academic Advisor)

Copyright: Research Institute for European and American Studies (www.rieas.gr) Publication date: 25 June 2016

Those familiar with military history would have no difficulty in identifying how the “Remain-ers” lost the historic referendum of June 23, 2016, in a way that was almost predetermined as it was crushingly sweeping by a margin of over one million votes.

First, the “Remain-ers,” uniting forces that are rejected, if not hated, by hundreds of millions around the Western world, drew up a battle plan that assumed the peasants had no backbone for the fight....Read more

Tassos Symeonides
(RIEAS Academic Advisor)

Copyright: Research Institute for European and American Studies (www.rieas.gr) Publication date: 18 June 2016

The street murder of British Labour lawmaker Jo Cox by an apparently deranged attacker has thrown the Brexit contest into disarray.

Beset by fear mongering and palpable mutual hostility, both sides, shocked by the crime, have suspended their respective referendum campaigns. Pundits now rush to place bets on whether the tragic death of the mother of two young children could give the upper hand to the "Remain" side; Jo Cox was an ardent pro-EU MP who campaigned briskly in favor of keeping the UK inside the fold. London bookies, the accepted weather-vane of electoral contests, sped to update their prediction in favor of "Remain."... Read more

Tassos Symeonides
(RIEAS Academic Advisor)

Copyright: Research Institute for European and American Studies (www.rieas.gr) Publication date: 5/6/2016

Speaking at the Wroclaw Global Forum on June 3, NATO Deputy Secretary General Alexander Vershbow (who was US ambassador to Russia, 2001-2005) said that the July Warsaw Summit must work on making NATO "a full-spectrum alliance more than ever before." "Full spectrum" could mean a lot of things, from overt intervention to defeat "threats," to political initiatives to rally the allies, to "gray zone" strategies aimed at undermining political forces that oppose NATO's declared objectives. That being said, the Warsaw Summit comes when NATO has decided on the key core task already: oppose Russia's expansionism and its perceived threat to Europe....Read more

The Polish Quarterly of International Affairs (no. 1/2006) published an issue focuses on the NATO Summit in Warsaw (8-9 July 2016) in Poland. John Nomikos (RIEAS Director) and Anestis Th. Symeonides (RIEAS Academic Advisor) contributed an article on "NATO and the Future, 2016: Five Questions and Answers." In this essay we pose five key questions for the future of NATO and provide what we think are five appropriate answers. Our assessment emerges from historical experience, an evaluation of current policies, and what we believe the Alliance's strategic directions should be. We chose this format for clarity and precision. We submit that the Alliance would be best served by brutal honesty and directness. Our views, of course, are "country centred;" we speak from the Hellenic point of view. Today, as never before since 1945, we need new, bold directions in the Churcillian manner, and radical re-assessment of theories and, often, myths which, unfortunately and frequently, still drive policy-making. Read more