Hagel: Idea of permanent peace in Europe is gone | Hagel urges NATO members to raise defense budgets in response to Russian threats | Into the Fold or Out in the Cold? NATO Expansion and European Security after the Cold War | Wilson Center | President Obama Holds a Press Conference with Chancellor Merkel of Germany - YouTube | Turmoil in Venezuela: An Update - YouTube
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Published on Mar 19, 2014
As civil unrest continues in Venezuela, we asked Latin American Program Director, Cindy Arnson, for an update on the sometimes violent situation. She provides insight into what's happening, the government's response, and whether or not the situation can be resolved any time soon.
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Published on Apr 15, 2014
Listening to the rhetoric surrounding Russia's move on Crimea, you might think the Cold War never ended.
Why did Putin make this move and is there more in store? And how significant is the damage done to Russia's relationships around the world?
The Kennan Institute's Matt Rojansky offers insight into the situation during this episode of Wilson Center NOW.
Why did Putin make this move and is there more in store? And how significant is the damage done to Russia's relationships around the world?
The Kennan Institute's Matt Rojansky offers insight into the situation during this episode of Wilson Center NOW.
Published on May 2, 2014
Wilson Events - Captured Live on Ustream at
Published on May 2, 2014
President Obama and Chancellor Merkel of Germany answer questions from the press at the White House. May 2, 2014.
Events
Into the Fold or Out in the Cold? NATO Expansion and European Security after the Cold War
May 02, 2014 // 10:00am — 12:00pm
Event Co-sponsors:
Kennan Institute
Webcast
Available
Watch
Twenty years ago, the 1994 Brussels Summit marked the beginning of NATO’s post-Cold War expansion. It was a process that resonated differently on opposite sides of the former “iron curtain” in the midst of complex and evolving relations between Russia and the West. This year will be no less pivotal for European security as the crisis in Ukraine brings renewed attention to Eastern Europe and the drawdown of NATO forces in Afghanistan continues. Amid these new and ongoing challenges, NATO will hold a summit in September to chart its future course. This panel of distinguished senior officials and experts will reflect on the steps that created Europe’s current security architecture, as well as the advantages and constraints NATO will face in addressing the security challenges of the 21st century.
We're sorry! This event is over-enrolled and registration is now closed. You will be able to watch the event live on this page. Thank you for understanding.
Location:
6th Floor, Woodrow Wilson Center
Event Speakers List:
- Jane Harman // Director, President and CEO
- Chuck Hagel //U.S. Secretary of Defense
- Jamie Shea //Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges, NATO
- Wolfgang Ischinger // Distinguished ScholarChairman of the Munich Security Conference and Former Deputy Foreign Minister of Germany; Former German Ambassador to the United Kingdom from 2006 to May 2008 and to the United States from 2001 to 2006.
- Sharyl Cross // Global FellowDistinguished Professor and Director of the Kozmetsky Center, St. Edward's University
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Former Prime Minister of Poland
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Former Foreign Minister of Russia, 1991-1996
Event Documents:
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Jane Harman - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jane Harman | Wilson Center
<a href="http://www.wilsoncenter.or" rel="nofollow">www.wilsoncenter.or</a>...
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
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Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives - 404
<a href="http://www.house.gov/" rel="nofollow">www.house.gov/</a>harman/
United States House of Representatives
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This talk explores Russia’s ties with East Asia through the lens of migration and policy. Russia spans the Eurasian continent, yet its historic and present connections with East Asia are often forgotten. At the turn of the 20th century, thousands of Asian migrants arrived in the Russian Far East, spurring fears of a “yellow peril.” A century later, the recent influx of new Asian migrants to Russia has generated similar sentiments. The talk discusses Asian migration in the context of cross-regional attempts to strengthen trade ties and diplomatic relations in the 21st century.
Directions:
Russia’s aggression in Ukraine has been the subject of many editorials and op eds. However, there has not been enough analysis as to why relations with Russia have reached this impasse nor lessons learned on how to manage relations with Russia going forward.
Chuck Hagel was sworn in as the 24th Secretary of Defense on February 27, 2013 becoming the first enlisted combat veteran to lead the Department of Defense.
Secretary Hagel was born on October 4, 1946 in North Platte, Nebraska, the eldest of four brothers. He joined the United States Army and volunteered to go to Vietnam, rising to the rank of Sergeant and serving as an infantry squad leader alongside his brother, Tom, with the Army’s 9th Infantry Division in 1968. He earned numerous military decorations and honors, including two Purple Hearts.
Following his tour in Vietnam, Secretary Hagel graduated from the University of Nebraska at Omaha using the G.I. Bill. Continuing his commitment to public service, Secretary Hagel became Chief of Staff to Nebraska Congressman John Y. McCollister.
In 1981, Secretary Hagel was nominated by President Ronald Reagan to serve as Deputy Administrator of the Veterans Administration. In that post he helped pioneer early electronic health record keeping and pushed for increased benefits for Vietnam veterans suffering from Agent Orange. This fight became one of the causes of his life, later helping federal courts distribute hundreds of millions of dollars for Agent Orange victims through the Court settlement that set up the Agent Orange Payment Program which he chaired.
In the mid-1980’s, Secretary Hagel co-founded Vanguard Cellular Systems, Inc., which became one of the largest independent cellular networks in the country. Secretary Hagel also served as President and CEO of the USO; the Chief Operating Officer of the 1990 Economic Summit of Industrialized Nations (G-7 Summit) in Houston, Texas; Deputy Commissioner General of the United States for the 1982 World’s Fair, President of the Private Sector Council and President of McCarthy & Company, an Omaha based investment bank.
In 1996, Secretary Hagel was elected to the United States Senate and represented Nebraska until 2009. While in the Senate, he was a senior member of the Foreign Relations; Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs; and Intelligence Committees. He chaired the Foreign Relations International Economic Policy, Export and Trade Promotion Subcommittee; and the Banking Committee’s International Trade and Finance, and Securities Subcommittees. Secretary Hagel also served as the Chairman of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China and the Senate Climate Change Observer Group.
Following his Senate career, Secretary Hagel served as Co-Chairman of President Obama’s Intelligence Advisory Board and a member of the Secretary of Defense Policy Board. He was a Distinguished Professor in the Practice of National Governance at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and Chairman of the Atlantic Council, a non-partisan institution devoted to promoting transatlantic cooperation and international security. He also served on the board of PBS and a number of corporations and financial institutions.
Secretary Hagel is author of the 2008 book America: Our Next Chapter. He and his wife Lilibet have a daughter, Allyn, and a son, Ziller.
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WASHINGTON Fri May 2, 2014 11:45am EDT
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Russia's actions in Ukraine have shattered the myth of European security in the post-Cold War era and underscored the danger NATO allies have created by failing to meet their defense spending pledges, U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said on Friday.
The Pentagon chief, in a speech on the future of the 28-nation alliance, said Russia's seizure of the Crimean peninsula and other action in the region had "reminded NATO of its founding purpose" and "presented a clarifying moment for the transatlantic alliance."
He also raised a longstanding U.S. concern about NATO defense spending, noting that American outlays on security are three times that of the other 27 partners combined, even though the U.S. gross domestic product is smaller than their total GDP.
"This lopsided burden threatens NATO's integrity, cohesion and capability - and ultimately, both European and transatlantic security," Hagel said in remarks at the Woodrow Wilson International Center in Washington. "We must see renewed financial commitments from all NATO members."
Only four of the NATO partners met their agreed target of spending 2 percent of GDP on defense in 2013 - Estonia, Greece, Britain and the United States. France and Turkey fell just shy of the 2 percent goal.
Hagel said one of the biggest obstacles to investment in defense was the sense that the prospect of conflict among nations had dissipated with the end of the Cold War.
"Russia's actions in Ukraine shatter that myth and usher in bracing new realities," he said. Given Moscow's actions in Ukraine, NATO in the future "should expect Russia to test our alliance's purpose, stamina and commitment," he added.
"We cannot take for granted, even in Europe, that peace is underwritten by the credible deterrent of military power," the U.S. defense chief said, calling for greater coordination among the allies on defense investments as well as higher levels of spending.
Hagel's comments came amid increased violence between Ukrainian loyalists and Russian separatists despite an international peace deal, and echoed calls by other top U.S. officials this week for NATO members to shore up their commitments.
On Friday, pro-Russian rebels shot down two Ukrainian helicopters, killing two people, as Ukrainian forces tightened their siege of separatist-held Slaviansk.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday urged NATO allies who are not meeting the 2 percent defense spending benchmark to boost their payments to the alliance in the next five years.
To help meet the goal of increasing defense spending, Hagel called for NATO members' finance ministers or budget officials to attend an alliance meeting to discuss the issue.
Spending imbalances among the NATO partners has been a longstanding complaint of U.S. defense secretaries.
Three years ago, then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates used his final speech in Europe as Pentagon chief to deliver a parting shot at the allies, saying the NATO members risked "collective military irrelevance" unless they bore more of the burden and boosted military spending.
His remarks came in the context of the Western-backed 2011 ouster of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi's government, which exposed a number of weaknesses among the European partners' militaries, such as a lack of intelligence and reconnaissance aircraft and specialists needed to identify bombing targets.
(Reporting by David Alexander and Susan Heavey; Editing by Bill Trott and Paul Simao)
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NATO members will be “judged harshly” if they do not increase defense spending in response to the challenge now posed by Russia, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told U.S. allies Friday.
“Talking amongst ourselves is no longer good enough. . . . Leaders across our governments must understand the consequences” of the current fiscal impasse, Hagel said in an address at the Wilson Center.
Graphic
A look at NATO military spending.
Karen DeYoung 9:12 AM ET
The U.S. defense secretary says members will be “judged harshly” if they fail to meet Russia’s challenge.
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‘We should have tried,’ the retired officer tells a House panel, bolstering Republicans’ criticism.
Read all of the stories in The Washington Post’s ongoing coverage of the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs.
Hagel’s speech is the toughest yet among a series of Obama administration appeals to the alliance to increase defense spending that has been lagging for years. Only a handful of NATO’s 28 members meet the agreed budget target of 2 percent of their gross domestic product.
In March, President Obama appealed to “every NATO member state . . . [to] step up and carry its share of the burden by showing the political will to invest in our collective defense.” As Russian troops began to mass on the Ukrainian border, Obama said that only alliance strength would push the Kremlin toward a diplomatic solution.
Since then, tension in eastern Ukraine has increased exponentially. As government troops launched an offensive Friday morning to retake the city of Slovyansk, pro-Russian separatists apparently shot down two Ukrainian military helicopters. The Kremlin warned that there was no further point in trying to negotiate a diplomatic agreement.
“For decades — from the early days of the Cold War — American defense secretaries have called on European allies to ramp up their defense investment,” Hagel said. One of the biggest obstacles, he said, has been a sense that the age of aggression in Europe was over.
“Russia’s actions in Ukraine shatter that myth and usher in bracing new realities,” Hagel said.
“We must see renewed financial commitments from all NATO members,” he said.
Top NATO and U.S. officials have called for budget talks at the highest levels when the next NATO summit is held in Wales in September.
Hagel called for a meeting of senior financial ministers and budget officials even before that “to receive detailed briefings from alliance military leaders on the challenges we face.”
Hagel noted that U.S. defense secretaries have been making the same appeal to Europe for decades, particularly since the end of the Cold War convinced them that Europe was secure. “Russia’s actions in Ukraine shatter that myth and usher in bracing new realities,” he said.
NATO’s “lopsided burden” has fallen disproportionately on the United States, Hagel said. “Today, America’s GDP is smaller than the combined GDP’s of our 27 NATO allies, but America’s defense spending is three times our Allies combined defense spending,” he said.
Although Hagel did not mention it, much of U.S. spending has come about as a result of three wars — two in Iraq and one in Afghanistan — in which NATO only partially participated.
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Pro-Russia supporters block the Kramatorsk-Slavyansk road to prevent Ukrainian National Guard troops from advancing on Friday. Russia warned on Friday that Ukraine's use of the army against its own people in the east will lead to catastrophe and urged the West to renounce its "destructive policies." "As we repeatedly warned, the use of the army against one's own people is a crime and is leading Ukraine towards catastrophe," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.
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