Featured Articles

America Votes, but Europe Decides on the Future of Transatlantic Relations

Jon Katz
October 31, 2008 11:51

Jan Techau, head of the Alfred von Oppenheim Center for European Studies at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) wrote an insightful op-ed in July, which is still very relevant. Techau described the European attitude towards the US election campaign: It is just like when worried parents...

Recent Articles

Preventing History from Repeating Itself

Jon Katz
August 09, 2010 21:32

Spiegel International: German police on Monday closed a mosque that had been a meeting place for the 9/11 terror cell. They believe the mosque continued to promote jihad and may have been a staging site for Islamist extremists living in Germany who have traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan to...

Iraq War Enhances US Image as a Colonial Power?

Jon Katz
August 09, 2010 20:46

Joe Klein in Time Magazine: Our attempt to construct an Iraq more amenable to our interests will end no better than the previous attempts by Western colonial powers. Even if something resembling democracy prevails, the U.S. invasion and occupation will not be remembered fondly by Iraqis. We will...

Thousands of Classified Reports on the Afghanistan War Leaked

Jon Katz
July 26, 2010 00:34

An extensive series of previously classified reports on the Afghanistan war effort titled the Afghan War Diary (AWD) has been made public by the website WikiLeaks.  The NYT, Guardian and Der Spiegel were leaked the reports several weeks ago.  Each has spent the past month analyzing the...

"Support Our Troops" - The German Edition

Jon Katz
July 23, 2010 14:29

What is common in the United States, is rather rare in Germany: Expressing support of our soldiers in Afghanistan. While most US critics of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan make extra efforts to distinguish between criticism of the strategy/purpose of the wars and the service of the troops, such...

Anti-European Schadenfreude Rising?

Jon Katz
July 18, 2010 11:36

When Foreign Policy featured an article on Anti-Europeanism in the United States as "Today's FP" cover, I got intrigued, but I was disappointed when I read this article Guardian columnist Simon Tisdall, which currently is FP's most read piece of the week. Old arguments about the Iraq war...

Taliban Recruit Monkey Terrorists

Jon Katz
July 13, 2010 21:55

Oh, no. "Taliban trains 'monkey terrorists' to attack U.S. troops," writes the People's Daily from China (via FP): Taliban forces have taught monkeys how to use the Kalashnikov, Bren light machine gun and trench mortars. They also teach them how to identify and attack soldiers wearing...

Will Soccer Bring an End to American Exceptionalism?

Jon Katz
July 13, 2010 21:39

We discussed American exceptionalism during the 2006 world cup: Soccer in German-American Relations and Soccer is for Losers? Soccer is getting increasingly popular in the US, which some conservative Americans don't like. Is America becoming less exceptional now? Or is it the other way round:...

"Let's Cut Defense Spending"

Jon Katz
July 11, 2010 11:57

Strange world: Atlantic Review is not just as a reference in an MA thesis, but is also referenced by E.D. Kain of the neoconservative (?) National Review Online to make the argument that the US should cut defense spending. He is linking to our blog in this paragraph: Americans provide defense for...

Atlantic Review Used for MA Thesis

Jon Katz
July 11, 2010 11:31

An Irish student emailed me that he his going to reference an Atlantic Review blogpost in his MA thesis: Are Americans More Willing to Make Sacrifices Than Europeans? It was one of my better blogposts, written in 2007, but still up-to-date. I was discussing transatlantic attitudes towards war and...