NATO - The Foundation, But Not the Sole Focus, of U.S.'s Europe Policy

Ahead of 2023 NATO Summit, U.S. Policy in Europe Must Advance Prosperity and Security, with Dan Kochis, Heritage Foundation Issue Brief #5323, July 7, 2023. "The U.S. does not have a serious policy for Europe: The Biden Administration’s claim that foreign and domestic policy are now one is intended to excuse its failings abroad and justify its progressive policies at home. At the July 2023 NATO summit in Vilnius, the U.S. should press for the rapid adoption and full funding of NATO’s regional plans and support Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression, while building a wider security and economic framework that will serve the West in the face of an aggressive China. The Biden Administration remains reflexive in Europe, clearly keen to shelve the region and return to its domestic priorities once the war subsides. This approach does not serve U.S. interests."

Russia, Canada, and Fish -- and China

Winning the New Cold War: A Plan for Countering China, edited by Jim Carafano, Michael Pillsbury, Jeff Smith, and Andrew Harding, Heritage Foundation Special Report #270, March 28, 2023, sections on “Diminish the Value of Russia as China’s Ally," “Improve U.S.-Canadian Bilateral Cooperation," and “Address Illegal Fishing and Maritime Militia Activities." "The Heritage Foundation’s “Winning the New Cold War” describes the ends, ways, and means to secure America’s future while confronting the greatest external threat the U.S. has faced since the collapse of the Soviet Union—the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). To be successful, this plan requires real and sustained U.S. economic growth, greater political will, stronger external partnerships, synchronized economic and security policies, resilient supply chains and borders, adequate military deterrence, and American energy independence. It also requires buy-in from the whole of American society. In order to implement a whole-of-nation strategy, the U.S. government must educate the American public and business community, from Main Street to Wall Street, about the scope of the threat from the CCP."

A Moment of Opportunity

How Russia’s War Impacts U.S. Influence in Europe, Limes Online, February 24, 2023 [paid access]. "One of the many unintended side-effects of Russia’s war on Ukraine has been the sudden revival of the U.S.’s influence in Europe – or at least in NATO. Yet again, as it has done so many times in the past, the European members of NATO have been reminded that the threats to European security are real and cannot be met without the leadership and assistance of the United States. But the U.S. recovery of its influence risks being a waning asset, because of the strains posed by the war, because of the decline it implies in Russia’s influence, and because the U.S. ultimately faces a greater challenge from China, a challenge to which Europe is only beginning to awake."

Leftists and the PRC, Together in the ATT

How Progressives Enable China’s Exploitation of the Arms Trade Treaty, with former Heritage intern Sterling Mosley, Heritage Foundation Backgrounder #3746, January 30, 2023. "While achieving greater transparency in the arms trade is sensible in theory, the ATT has neither promoted meaningful transparency nor prevented nations from supplying regimes with arms to commit crimes against humanity. The treaty has only hampered Western democracies. China only signed the ATT at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in an effort to save face. Since signing, China has continued to export conventional weapons to repressive dictatorships.Revealingly, after China signed the treaty it joined the progressive supporters of the ATT—from governments to politicians to media to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)—by criticizing the U.S. for refusing to follow suit. China’s participation in the treaty is mere window-dressing, and the ATT’s supporters are complicit in ignoring China’s violations. These failures demonstrate again that the ATT is merely a political weapon aimed at the U.S. and its allies."

More Silliness, and Worse, from Interpol

Another Year Brings More Autocratic Victories Over the Democratic Members of Interpol, Daily Signal, November 4, 2022. "The most recent annual meeting of Interpol’s governing body brought more bad news for its democratic member states, including the U.S."

Interpol Elections and Interpol Abusers

US Leadership Needed to Push Back on China’s Abuse of Interpol, Daily Signal, August 31, 2022. "But Interpol does have problems. And China is among the biggest. The next meeting of the Interpol General Assembly, which makes the final decisions for the organization, is set to take place in India from Oct. 18 to 21. The General Assembly’s last meeting, in 2021, was a disaster for the U.S. Representatives from authoritarian regimes, including China, took control of the Executive Committee, which supervises implementation of the General Assembly’s decisions."

Brexit Britain in the Pacific

How the U.S. Can Support the U.K.’s Return to the Indo-Pacific Region, Heritage Foundation Issue Brief #5267, June 2, 2022. "The United Kingdom withdrew from major commitments East of Suez in 1968, but since 2019, Brexit Britain has returned to the Indo-Pacific region. While taking measures to restrict Chinese influence in the U.K., it has recognized China as a systemic competitor with values antithetical to its own, has built trading ties in Asia and the Pacific, and has developed new bilateral and multilateral security pacts in the region. The U.S. has benefitted from British initiative but has done little to encourage it. The U.K.’s return to the Indo-Pacific region is in the interests of the U.S. and the democratic world, and the U.S. should take steps to support the U.K."

U.S. Policies in Europe After Russia's Invasion

The Top Five U.S. Priorities for European Policy After Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine, with Daniel Kochis, Heritage Foundation Issue Brief #5258, April 7, 2022. "The year 2022 is the most important in transatlantic relations since the end of the Cold War. Russia’s unprovoked second invasion of Ukraine brings new urgency to the need for cooperation between the United States and its European allies. The U.S. can only meet the demands of this new era of great-power conflict, in which Russia and China both pose grave and wide-ranging challenges, if the U.S. builds on the strength of the transatlantic alliance, which remains central to its security. The Russian attack demonstrates that Europe has profoundly underestimated the dangers for which NATO was founded—and exists—to deter. The shock of the Russian assault must lead to unified action."

A G-7 Agenda for 2021

The G-7 Must Act With Unity for Growth and Freedom, with Jim Roberts, Heritage Foundation Issue Brief #6093, June 10, 2021. "This year’s Group of Seven (G-7) summit of world leaders faces a series of vital and interlinked challenges. As the world seeks to recover from the devastating personal and economic effects of COVID-19, the democracies are equally seeking to regain the initiative from the world’s autocracies. From Russia’s aggressions in the Caucuses and Ukraine—and its murderous attack by poison in Salisbury, close to the route from London to St. Ives—to the much broader economic, security, and political challenge of China, the democracies are back on their heels, which is where they were when the G-7 first came together in 1973."

What the U.S. Should Do in Europe in 2021

The Top Five U.S. Priorities for European Policy in 2021, with Daniel Kochis, Heritage Foundation Issue Brief #6037, January 13, 2021. "2021 will be an inflection point for transatlantic relations. A new U.S. Administration and Congress should focus on reinforcing the transatlantic alliance and working with Europe to address threats from aggressive state actors, while meeting the monumental challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. While the policy differences between the U.S. and Europe on key issues will not disappear under a Biden presidency, the need to work together remains essential: U.S. security rests first and foremost on the strength of the transatlantic alliance."

Cooperative Pandemic Measures with Europe

The U.S.–European Economic Partnership Recovery Plan, with colleagues at the Heritage Foundation, Heritage Foundation Special Report #230, May 8, 2020. "Europe is being devastated by the coronavirus pandemic, and the economic situation in the United States is not much better. The U.S. and Europe need each other more than ever in order to pull each other out of the post-COVID-19 economic crisis. This Special Report has identified seven areas of potential transatlantic community cooperation between the U.S. and Europe: (1) economic freedom, (2) a U.S.–EU Free Trade Agreement, (3) a U.S.–U.K. Free Trade Agreement, (4) the Three Seas Initiative, (5) the Visa Waiver Program, (6) Europe’s energy security, and (7) Europe’s approach to China 5G technology. Cooperation on these seven areas offers a realistic and meaningful approach for Americans and Europeans to help each other."

No, It's Not A CFIUS

The Potential Risks of the EU’s Investment Screening for the United States, Heritage Foundation Issue Brief #5055, April 6, 2020. "The EU has adopted a framework for screening foreign direct investment. While this framework has regularly been compared to the Committee for Foreign Investments in the United States (CFIUS), the reality is that the EU’s framework bears no similarities to CFIUS in form or likely effectiveness. In fact, the EU’s framework is riddled with weaknesses and perverse incentives. Moreover, because the EU’s framework covers EU programs that have been developed in order to create strategic distance between the EU and the U.S., it is likely that the framework will be used not only against the autocracies at which it is purportedly directed, but also against the United States. The U.S. should focus on improving investment screening at the national level, and vigorously protest any use of the EU’s framework against the U.S."

Priorities for the U.S. in Europe in 2020

Six Key Priorities for U.S. Europe Policy in a Crucial Year, with Daniel Kochis, Heritage Foundation Issue Brief #5025, January 17, 2020. "The year 2020 will have an outsized policy impact on key issues facing the transatlantic alliance. Key challenges for U.S. policy in Europe in 2020 include the continued threat of Russia to U.S. interests and to American allies, Russia’s continued war in Ukraine, the pernicious effects of Chinese investments, the Trojan horse of Chinese 5G technology putting Western intelligence sharing at risk, and failure to secure the Balkans and allowing local conflicts to metastasize. U.S. policymakers should focus on six key priorities in 2020: (1) a U.S.–U.K. free trade agreement, (2) NATO deterrence capabilities, (3) U.S.–EU trade negotiations, (4) moving Europe toward a robust response to the rising threat from China, (5) supporting the Three Seas Initiative, and (6) continued engagement in European hotspots."

Operation Whoops I Shouldn't Have Said That

China Confesses To Abusing Interpol System In The United States, Forbes, June 25, 2019. "Meng Qingfeng’s open acknowledgement that China is using Interpol to procure back-door extraditions from the United States, while not genuinely new, is nonetheless shocking, and the U.S. should take immediate action to end this practice of collaborating with the police state of Communist China."

We Got Lucky

When Inheritance Is Everything, Newsday, June 23, 2019. "The protests in Hong Kong that begin in April reflect the courage of the people of Hong Kong. But they also reflect Hong Kong’s British inheritance. And as we approach the Fourth of July, they remind us how lucky we are to enjoy both that inheritance and our freedom."

And the Abuse Keeps Coming

Interpol Abuse By Palestinian Authority And Others Shows Strengths And Weaknesses Of The System, Forbes, May 31, 2019. "Over the past few days, four cases of Interpol abuse, or attempted abuse, have demonstrated several of the weaknesses, and strengths, of the Interpol system. Interpol is supposed to be limited to ordinary crime. Interpol abuse happens when it is used for political, racial, religious, or military purposes."

Above All, A US-UK FTA

Six Key Priorities for President Trump’s State Visit to the United Kingdom, with Nile Gardiner, Heritage Foundation Issue Brief #4962, May 22, 2019. "President Trump’s state visit to the United Kingdom from June 3 to 5, 2019, offers a vital opportunity to strengthen the Special Relationship and transatlantic alliance, advance U.S. leadership in Europe, reaffirm powerful U.S. backing for Brexit, and underscore that a U.S.–U.K. free trade deal will be a top priority for the U.S. Administration post-Brexit. The President should emphasize plain speaking and serious actions. Above all, he must make it clear to the next British government and to the British people that an independent and sovereign Britain will continue to be the United States’ closest ally."

The Disappeared

Why Interpol’s Chinese President Disappeared – And Why It Matters, Daily Signal, October 22, 2018. "It was unseemly for Interpol to have a Chinese political policeman as its president to begin with. It’s also true that the danger of having the Chinese political police at the helm of Interpol was not quite what it seemed."

What We All Got Wrong

So Many U.S. Delusions in Foreign Affairs, Newsday, April 1, 2018. "It’s a common lament that politics don’t stop at the water’s edge. Foreign policy, the argument goes, should be run on the basis of national interest, not party politics. But in reality, U.S. administrations of all colors have a lot of beliefs in common. Unfortunately, all too often, they believe in illusions."

A Tale of Three Purges

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Is Consolidating His Power, Newsday, December 3, 2017. "Under the leadership of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia has launched a crackdown on corruption. This is the world’s third great anti-corruption drive in the past 15 years. The last two, in Russia and China, presaged war and aggression. The same things will happen in the Middle East."