On Madrid 3/11: Does Europe Do Enough to Fight International Terrorism? By Marcel H. van Herpen of the Cicero Foundation who sets out the EU's response to the counter terrorist challenge.

By Cicero Foundation , Netherlands, France, EU.

Defense Policy Resource.

Canadian Naval Future: A Necessary Long-Term Planning Framework. Despite clear evidence that Canada continues to be well served by its Navy, some planning decisions have been put off so long that the current fleet could soon be "verging on obsolescence," says Peter Haydon The paper outlines steps that the Federal government must take to ensure that Canada's naval capabilities can be sustained over the long term.

By Institute for Research on Public Policy , Canada.

Defense Policy Resource.

Is the Iraq war sapping America's military power? Cautionary data and perspectives. Charts, Reference Material, and Panel Presentation: * Change in the Percentage of US Military Personnel Overseas, Stationed and Deployed * US Military Personnel Overseas 2002-2004 * A Measure of Stress on Active Component Army Personnel 1994-2004 * Mobilized National Guard and Reserve, October 2001 - September 2004 * Reference Readings - online * Panel: "Stretched too thin? The Effect of Recent Military Operations on America's Armed Forces" with James Fallows, Lawrence Korb, Pat Towell, Douglas Macgregor, and Carl Conetta, moderator. View streaming video of event from CSPAN. To connect to this file you must have Real Player installed. By Carl Conetta, Charles Knight, and Melissa Murphy.

By Project on Defense Alternatives , US.

Defense Policy Resource.

Chirac's Gaullism: Why France Has Become The Driving Force Behind An Autonomous European Defence Policy. The author analyses Chirac?s European defence policy and how it fits into the Gaullist tradition. He starts in Part I by sketching the original Gaullism of General De Gaulle which is based on four pillars: a national industrial policy, an independent foreign policy, the possession of a French nuclear deterrent and the ambition to build an independent European defence. De Gaulle?s efforts in the last realm, however, were blocked by the US and its European NATO allies. In Part II the author analyses the non-Gaullist interregnum between 1974 ? 1995. President Giscard d?Estaing jeopardised the Gaullist legacy in seeking a rapprochement with the US, but President François Mitterrand, on the contrary, became ? against all expectations ? a ?Socialist Gaullist?and it was he who came close to realising one of De Gaulle?s objectives by creating the multinational Eurocorps. In Part III the author analyses Chirac?s ? highly volatile ? policies. He distinguishes no less than six(!) different, and often contradictory, phases in Chirac?s European defence policy. Despite the inevitable failures, some successes, however, have been booked ? especially after the Saint-Malo summit with Tony Blair. But much of the final outcome will depend on how Chirac in the final years of his Presidency will succeed the balancing act between the EU-25, the (weakened) French-German tandem and the ?Big Three?. By Marcel H. van Herpen.

By Cicero Foundation, Netherlands, France, EU.

Defense Policy Resource.

Six Dimensions of the Growing Transatlantic Divide: Are the US and Europe Definitively Driving Themselves Apart?. Recently there has been much debate about a growing divide between the United States and its European allies after September 11. The question I want to answer here is if there exists, indeed, such a divide, and, if so, what will be the consequences for the transatlantic partnership. The second question I will try to answer is if this gap has a temporal or a structural character. If it is temporal, this means that the divide is the result of specific historical circumstances which may change over time. Since 1945 the transatlantic relationship has known many ebbs (Suez, Vietnam, NATO?s "double track" decision) and flows (Berlin crisis, Vietnam, Kosovo) and there seems, at first sight, no reason that this will be different now. Would, on the contrary, the growing transatlantic divide have a structural character, then this would mean that the estrangement between the US and Europe is not a temporary event, but that it is the expression of deeper underlying forces that irresistibly tear America and Europe apart. To analyse what is the case I have divided the transatlantic drift into six different components, which are: * a transatlantic perception gap * a transatlantic capabilities gap * a transatlantic attitude gap * a transatlantic value gap * a transatlantic religion gap * a transatlantic strategy gap By Marcel H. van Herpen.

By Cicero Foundation , Netherlands, EU, US.

Defense Policy Resource.