Nato head Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said there cannot be a credible EU foreign policy without the military means to back it up. "We Europeans must understand that soft power alone is really no power at all. Without hard ...

Swedish defence minister Karin Enstrom has said her country is not in Nato partly because the EU treaty contains its own security guarantee. Speaking to EUobserver at the Globsec conference in Bratislava on Saturday (20 ...

Nato head Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said that the alliance would only take action against Syria if Turkey is attacked. Speaking to EUobserver in his office in Brussels last week, the secretary general of what calls ...

Speak with most American officials about the EU and they will talk about the bloc as a partner and strong ally of the US. Criticism of the 27-country bloc is reserved for the ongoing eurozone debt crisis and the spill- ...

EU officials weary of being sniped at for their handling of the crisis or their big salaries got a morale boost on Friday (12 October) when the five people on the Nobel Peace Prize committee in Norway gave the world's ...

EUobserver: In what way does the VSSE co-operate with the EU institutions and Nato? Alain Winants: Belgium hosts the institutions of two major international bodies - the EU and Nato, which is a great privilege but it's ...

EU countries have criticised "strategic partner" Azerbaijan for making a national hero out of an axe-murderer. On 19 February 2004 during a Nato seminar at a military school in Budapest, he walked into the bedroom of a ...

Russia's ambassador to the EU has said "technical differerences" remain on how to handle Syria ahead of an international meeting in Geneva. Vladimir Chizhov told EUobserver on Thursday (28 June) that Russia, the EU and ...

Turkey has invoked the softer article four of the Nato treaty after Syria shot down one of its warplanes on Friday (22 June). Its decision will see the 28 Nato countries' ambassadors hold emergency talks in the North ...

The EU special envoy for Somalia is looking into a fresh report that pirates are in business with Italian gangsters on toxic waste. The Paris-based criminologist, Michel Koutouzis, who carries out investigations for the ...

French leader Francois Hollande has said military action in Syria is possible if the UN agrees, as EU countries expelled ambassadors. He spoke on national TV on Tuesday (29 May) following UN confirmation that Syrian ...

Nato is holding its 25th Summit on 20 and 21 May in Chicago, where President Barack Obama will host colleagues from 27 Nato allies. There is a lot to discuss but Nato secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen chose wisely ...

If or when a full-blown conflict erupts between Armenia and Azerbaijan, it will probably begin like this. According to a senior source in the Armenian defence ministry, on 27 April Azerbaijani troops sneaked over the ...

Nato has not disclosed the full extent of civilian causalities during its seven-month bombing campaign over Libya last year, says a report released on Monday (14 May) by Human Rights Watch (HRW). The campaigners found ...

Ukraine's EU ambassador has told justice commissioner Vivianne Reding that she should be less "emotional" in a riposte to her Euro2012 boycott. The diplomat, Konstiantin Yelisieiev, in a letter dated 2 May - and seen by ...

As the EU stops sales of perfume and truffles to Syria, one officer in the Free Syrian Army (FSA) wonders why it is doing so little to really help. EU ministers imposed the ban on luxury goods at a meeting in Luxembourg ...

The US is spending more on its military than EU countries, China and Russia put together. Meanwhile, as US President Barack Obama pulls troops out of Europe, the financial crisis is seeing EU capabilities erode. America ...

A detailed 90-page forensic report by Goldsmiths, the University of London released on Wednesday (11 April) says Nato contributed to the deaths of 63 refugees in one boat of 72 fleeing Libya by attempting to cross the ...

Confusion, denial and ignored distress signals by Nato, warships and two fishing boats led to the death of 63 migrants (including children) on a boat which tried to cross the Mediterranean last year, according to a ...

European defence ministers endorsed plans on Thursday (22 March) to develop air-to-air refuelling capabilities and field hospitals in a bid to reduce military costs. "Pooling demand, as lessons learned from former joint ...

Last year's Nato operation in Libya, code named Unified Protector, is unlikely to have succeeded without US military support. Nato major-general Marcel Druart, addressing the European Parliament committee on security ...

EU firms have joined the gold rush on military and civilian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). But ethical and legal questions dog the technology. The global UAV market is worth $6 billion (€4.6bn) a year and will hit $12 ...