Britain is to lead an armada of EU warships to the Gulf of Aden next month to tackle the escalating problem of piracy in a mission expected to last 12 months.The naval fleet, under UK command, would "disrupt and to tackle the scourge of piracy", foreign secretary David Miliband said today on a visit to Beirut. Piracy threatens trade and prosperity, he added.EU military planners this week drew up a detailed mandate, including rules of engagement for the use of force, for the mission at a meeting at Northwood, Britain's joint operations centre in north-west London. Plans for the EU fleet, led by HMS Northumberland and known as Operation Atalanta, are due to formally agreed early next month, European defence officials said today.The EU fleet, originally proposed to escort boats carrying food...

President Nicolas Sarkozy of France joined Russia in condemning the Pentagon's plans to install missile defence bases in central Europe yesterday and backed President Dmitri Medvedev's previously ignored calls for a new pan-European security pact.Both presidents concluded a Russia-EU summit, in Nice in the south of France, with an agreement to convene a major international conference next summer at which the Americans, Russians and the 27 countries of the EU should come up with a blueprint for new post-cold war "security architecture" in Europe.The call for such a pact has been Medvedev's central foreign policy message since he succeeded Vladimir Putin as president earlier this year. Medvedev has called for the new deal in several keynote speeches but has been snubbed by western leaders...

The news that HMS Cumberland attacked and captured a Somali pirate vessel in the Gulf of Yemen was one of those slightly quaint pieces of news that is somehow rather cheering.On the one hand while we know how desperate the situation is in Somalia and the autonomous Puntland, Pirates, by definition, are the bad guys. The seizure of the Ukrainian ship "Faima" and its cargo of weapons was clearly the last straw for the international community. The fact is that we can not allow global logistics chains to be disrupted like this. On the other hand, there is not the global political will to actually sort out the truly awful situation on the ground in the wreckage of Somalia.Personally, I think it is about time to admit that Somalia as a state is not fixable. To my mind that means recognising the...

He’s not starting out using ‘war on terror’ rhetoric: ‘Here in America we compete vigorously in elections and challenge each other’s ideas, yet come together in service of a common purpose once the voting is done.’ He cast America’s economic woes in a grim light. ‘Tens of millions of families are struggling to figure out how to pay the bills and stay in their homes,’ he said. Simple figures bear that out, especially after new figures on Friday showed that the economy had lost 240,000 jobs in October. That was the 10 successive month of losses and America has now shed 1.2 million jobs so far this year. The tone of Obama’s words provided a contrast with Bush. Though he repeated a vow to help Obama in establishing a smooth...

The Soviet-era radio station is visible from the road. Rising above a forest of tall pines and birches, the radio masts near the town of Bolshakova were a listening post during the cold war. Up the road is Lithuania. In the other direction is Poland.Two decades later, the Soviet Union has gone. But the town with its pretty German cottages and gardens full of geese is now on the frontline of a new cold war. On Wednesday Russia's president, Dmitry Medvedev, said he would deploy Iskander nuclear missiles in Kaliningrad - the small Baltic Sea chunk of Russian territory encircled by what are now Nato countries. The hardware would be pointed at US missile defence and radar bases in Poland and the Czech Republic, Medvedev said. Russia would use sophisticated radio jamming equipment to sabotage...

Welcome to my blog. And welcome to Musa Qala, a small market town situated in Northern Helmand province, Afghanistan. I arrived here three months ago to begin my work as a stabilisation advisor and so I feel I may have learnt enough by now to be able to share my experiences through this blog. Musa Qala was the scene of heavy fighting last December when Afghan Government forces retook the town from the Taliban with the aid of British and other NATO forces. The two civilian Musa Qala stabilisation advisors live and work with the UK military, currently led by the 2nd Battalion of Royal Gurkha Rifles, in their camp in the town centre. Despite being the only civilians in a camp of around 400 soldiers we are well received, supported and, I believe, fully integrated into the work and plans of...

Welcome to my blog. And welcome to Musa Qala, a small market town situated in Northern Helmand province, Afghanistan. I arrived here three months ago to begin my work as a stabilisation advisor and so I feel I may have learnt enough by now to be able to share my experiences through this blog. Musa Qala was the scene of heavy fighting last December when Afghan Government forces retook the town from the Taliban with the aid of British and other NATO forces. The two civilian Musa Qala stabilisation advisors live and work with the UK military, currently led by the 2nd Battalion of Royal Gurkha Rifles, in their camp in the town centre. Despite being the only civilians in a camp of around 400 soldiers we are well received, supported and, I believe, fully integrated into the work and plans of...

President Dmitry Medvedev said today that Russia will deploy missiles in territory near Nato member Poland in response to US missile defense...

For a long time this blog has warned of the dangers of the aggressive regime in place in the Moscow Kremlin. In common with commentators like my friend Edward Lucas, I have pointed out the consequences of the lack of property rights and the extraordinary level of corruption in modern Russia.This prickly and aggressive approach has had an impact on any country that is the focus of Russian policy. As Vygaudas Uzackas- the Ambassador of Lithuania in London- observed in a conference last week, Russia still has trouble escaping the mindset that it must deal with other states either as enemies or as vassals. This zero-sum world view of the Kremlin looks not only old fashioned, but self defeating.The Russian Federation , during the past five years, has built up an extraordinary war chest of...

Serious doubts multiplied yesterday about Pakistan's commitment to America's military campaign against al-Qaida and the Taliban after parliament overwhelmingly passed a resolution calling for dialogue with extremist groups and an end to military action.The new strategy, backed by all parties, emerged after a fierce debate in parliament where most parliamentarians said that Pakistan was paying an unacceptable price for fighting "America's war". If implemented by the government, support for Pakistan from international allies would come under severe strain, adding further instability to a country facing a spiral of violence and economic collapse."We need to prioritise our own national security interests," said Raza Rabbani, a leading member of the ruling Pakistan People's party. "As far as...

This comment by a leading Slovenian politician on the first day of the Queen's State Visit brought me up short. And then I thought about the history. Slovenia was always the richest and most westernised part of former Yugoslavia. Today it is a member of the EU and NATO, the first accession country to hold the EU's rotating presidency (earlier this year), a country confident in its nationhood and also in its internationalism. The security of the EU is heaven if your history over centuries is of empires coming and going, domination from Vienna or later Belgrade being a permanent preoccupation - and that is the Slovene experience. Tito held Yugoslavia together but the rotating republic after 1980 satisfied no one. Slovenia escaped the worst of the 1990s break up but there is a clear sense...

Former Nato commander in Afghanistan to become chief of the general staff in August next...

Extremist violence and economic crisis push Pakistan to verge of collapse as political class...

Peter Rutland writes in the Moscow Times, highlighting the disparity between intentions which have been ascribed to Dmitri Medvedev and Vladimir Putin and the language which the men themselves have used. Often their pronouncements have been misreported, or at least reinterpreted in more sinister language, in order to imply more bellicose intent than careful examination of their statements actually yields. Neither Medvedev nor Putin have ever actually used the term ‘sphere of influence’, despite widespread reporting which suggests that both men have explicitly laid out a doctrine asserting such a sphere exists within the former Soviet Union. Even ‘near abroad’ which was common parlance to describe adjacent states throughout the 1990s, has fallen into disuse to be replaced be the...

Simon Tisdall: The next US president should take a more constructive approach to challenges from the east, if only out of enlightened...

No civilian casualties reported after Afghan army bomb convoy armed with mortar...

More than 60 militants killed by Nato and Afghan troops as they attempted strike on Lashkar Gah, officials...

Series: Common ground on Scotland's futureTOCMy view on Scotland’s constitutional future If you haven’t read my previous post explaining what I’m trying to do here, feel free to take a look. In this post I will set out the thinking behind my views on Scottish independence. For what it’s worth, I think within a couple of decades the idea of the independent nation state will almost be completely alien. In a lot of ways, it already is. In an increasingly globalised world, countries are increasingly defined not in terms of their own peculiar characteristics but in terms of their relationships with other countries. For instance, we think of countries as being members of transnational organisations. Countries are usually members of organisations such as the EU,...

The Ukrainian Rada is often presented as an example of rude democratic health in comparison to anaemic parliaments in other former Soviet republics. That is to say that it is so fractured as to be almost unworkable, with a myriad of tiny parties forming larger blocs which must in turn coalesce in order to form a government. Ukraine’s president is Vistor Yuschenko whose Our Ukraine faction claims just 14% of Rada deputies. In 2004 he enjoyed the support of the Bloc of Yulia Tymoschenko when he sought election in the disputed presidential election against Victor Yanukovich (whose Party of the Regions forms Ukraine’s biggest single bloc). Having pulled his bloc out of coalition with the BYT, he is reportedly providing more time for Prime Minister Tymoschenko to form a coalition with...

Following up my visit to Kiev in August President Yuschenko of Ukraine called on the Prime Minister and me in London yesterday.  He heads a strategically vital country with rich history and a conspicuous commitment to engagement with western institutions, notably the EU on which there is cross party consensus in Ukraine.  Talks yesterday focussed on political stability within Ukraine, the need to nip in the bud tension over Crimea, and how to build on the 9 September EU-Ukraine accession agreement.  In addition to the global economic crisis, we also discussed follow up to the April Bucharest NATO declaration and the work of the NATO-Ukraine commission, which promote joint work with Ukrainian armed forces (who are major contributors to NATO's overseas missions).  It...

Comments attributed to ambassador included in diplomatic dispatch published by French satirical...

Andrew Grotto: The current zero-sum character of US-Russia relations jeopardises the future of a key nuclear non-proliferation...

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown (pictured above) yesterday fought for his political life as he delivered the keynote leadership speech at the New Labour party conference. In a lengthy address, the PM tried to hammer home the message that he was the right man to lead Britain through the current economic crisis and that only Labour would take the right decisions to support hard-working families. He also unveiled plans to scrap prescription charges for cancer patients and give elderly people help to stay in their homes and escape the costs of going into care. Promising “a new settlement for new times”, he told delegates that his vision (he’s going on about his bloody “vision” again) of a “fair society” was “a cause worth fighting for.”...

Tim Judah is The Economist’s Balkan correspondent and, however justified O’Neill’s reservations about that magazine might be in general terms, he remains arguably the most authoritative British journalist writing about the region. ‘Kosovo, What Everyone Needs to Know’, is his latest book, a slim, but surprisingly detailed account of Kosovo’s history, up to and including the unilateral declaration of independence and its aftermath. In previous books Judah has drawn on personal experience and enlivened his histories with a smattering of anecdote. The confines of this OUP series demand a more concise approach. Nevertheless, the book is readable and manages largely to furnish its readers with both sides of the story. Occasionally impartiality is achieved at the expense of the...

Georgia’s president, Mikhail Saakashvili, has his own singular methods for dealing with opposition to his corrupt regime. Recent history which has been conveniently forgotten in the rush to acclaim his country as a bastion of freedom in the Caucasus.Saakashvili is not the only American client in the region. Azerbaijan is corrupt, anti-democratic, repressive and an important strategic ally of the US and Nato. Ilham Aliyev is currently holds the presidency which was conferred on him in much the same fashion as a family heirloom. On Comment is Free, Nina Ognianova highlights continued abuses of human rights, oppression of press freedom and the lack of democratic credibility which will attend forthcoming elections. Don’t hold your breath for a storm of western opprobrium. Azerbaijan...

SARAH Palin: “Nuclear War With Russia A Go!” Palin just suggested, that the US would go to war with Russia over Georgia or the Ukraine: Palin advocated the accession of Georgia and Ukraine into NATO, meaning that if attacked again in the future, the United States would be bound to go to war. “I mean, that is the agreement when you are a NATO ally, is if another country is attacked, you’re going to be expected to be called upon and help,” she said. The Left are scared of Sarah...

The Foreign Secretary visited Kiev two weeks ago, to show our support for Ukraine in the wake of events in Georgia. Today in Paris the EU and Ukraine agreed to take our relationship a big step forward by agreeing to conclude an Association Agreement.  This will help Ukraine to integrate further into the European economy, co-operate on tackling organised crime and trafficking, and improve the prosperity and security of the EU. Ukraine is a European country, the Summit today explicitly recognised that fact and acknowledged that one day Ukraine might apply for membership.  David Miliband set out our approach towards Ukraine in a speech he delivered in Kiev.  We believe that the door to EU membership should be open to Ukraine.  EU membership will take time and effort,...

House searches should be led by Afghan troops with permission from homeowners, says...

Surge in civilian deaths from US and Nato air strikes fuelling public backlash, finds Human Rights...

Beleaguered UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown (pictured above) faced a New Labour backlash last night after one of his closest allies urged him to make energy companies share their profits. Geoffrey Robinson, the former Treasury minister, fuelled party unrest by backing calls for a form of windfall tax to fund help for struggling families. He joined other MPs who spoke out in dismay after the Government abandoned attempts to strike a voluntary payment deal with major energy firms. Ministers had wanted to persuade power companies to offer cash relief to customers struggling with soaring energy bills this winter. Perhaps these concerned ministers and indeed Gormless Gord himself might be rapidly forming the opinion that the best way of providing relief to all of us is for them to piss off and...