The Lisbon Treaty will be pushed through by stealth

The strength of a vociferous ‘No’ campaign means Ireland’s Taoiseach and the rest of the EU cannot risk another referendum

Ever since Ireland voted against the European Constitution Lisbon Treaty, the EU has been clamouring for a second referendum. The trouble is that the risks and gains for the Irish Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, are asymmetrical. If he held the vote and won, he’d be slightly better off. But if he lost, he’d have to resign, and would go down in history as the Taoiseach who wouldn’t take “No” for an answer. Read more

CNN | G-20: Shaping a new world order

U.S. economic mettle is tested as emboldened leaders from throughout the world gather in Washington.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The role of the United States as the world’s economic leader will be tested this weekend when 20 significant world leaders meet in Washington to address the global financial crisis. Read more

Sarkozy: US missile system wouldn’t help security

NICE, France (AP) - France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy says putting a missile defense system in Europe would do nothing to help European security. Read more

Gates Hits Out at Russian Missile Deployment

After a NATO meeting in Estonia, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates condemned Russian President Dmitry Medvedev over a plan announced last week to deploy missiles to Kaliningrad to counter an American missile defense base being constructed in Poland. Read more

Medvedev: ready to respond if U.S. ends missile plan

PARIS (Reuters) - Russia could cancel its deployment of missiles near the Polish border if U.S. President-elect Barack Obama scraps plans for a missile defense system in central Europe, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said. Read more

Reports: Kremlin rejects US missile defense

MOSCOW - The Kremlin has rejected a second set of U.S. proposals offered to assuage increasingly strident Russian criticism of plans for an American missile-defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic, news agencies reported Wednesday.

The Bush administration says the system would protect Europe against potential future attacks by Iranian long-range missiles. Moscow has angrily dismissed those assertions, saying the system could eliminate Russia’s nuclear deterrent or spy on its military installations.

In a major speech just hours after Barack Obama won the U.S. presidential vote, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev pledged to base short-range Iskander missiles in the Baltic Sea region of Kaliningrad on the border with Poland if the U.S. goes forward with its plans.

The Bush administration later sent Moscow a new set of proposals, including suggestions about allowing Russian observers at the planned U.S. sites in Poland and the Czech Republic, according to John Rood, the U.S. acting undersecretary of state for arms control.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said over the weekend the latest U.S. proposals were insufficient. On Wednesday, an unidentified Kremlin official told Russian news agencies that Moscow was prepared to work with Washington on questions of European security but accused the Bush administration of trying to limit the incoming Obama administration’s choices on the issue.

The Kremlin did not comment on the report, but Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell did.

“I hope this unnamed Kremlin official does not express his government’s true wishes because we still very much wish to partner with Russia to combat the growing ballistic missile threat emanating from Iran,” he said, noting that Tehran conducted another missile test Wednesday.

“They are clearly determined to develop a weapon capable of reaching Europe, and for that matter Russia, so it continues to be in our mutual interest to work together on this issue,” Morrell said.

Iran’s defense minister announced the country has successfully test-fired a new, more accurate generation of its longest-range surface-to-surface missile. Iranian television showed the missile being fired Wednesday from a launching pad in the desert.

Meanwhile, the head of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency said Wednesday that Russia has not said what part of the new U.S. proposals it objects to.

“We have laid out very common sense approaches here,” Lt. Gen. Henry Obering III said in Washington. “I think it is time that we ask the Russians to justify why they are taking a stance that internationally is so unreasonable.”

Obama’s plans remain unclear regarding the missile defense system, but an Obama aide has said the incoming U.S. president did not commit to the missile defense plans during a recent conversation with Poland’s president.

The U.S. Embassy in Moscow said the U.S. envoy William Burns met with Lavrov and Kremlin aide Sergei Prikhodko on Wednesday to discuss missile defense talks taking place next month. No further details were released.

An American official said separately the U.S. and Russia will begin talks Thursday in Geneva on finding a successor to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which expires at the end of next year. The 1991 START treaty significantly cut U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals.

The official spoke Wednesday on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to be quoted by name.

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Associated Press Writers Slobodan Lekic in Brussels, Bradley S. Klapper in Geneva, Foster Klug and Desmond Butler in Washington, and Lolita Baldor in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed to this report.

AP | Mike Eckel | Wednesday, November 12, 2008

G20 summit: New world order?

Some G20 nations hope the weekend summit on financial reform will be a modern Bretton Woods, but can it make big decisions without Barack Obama? By Stephen Foley in New York

For the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, it is a “new Bretton Woods”, as important as the 1944 convention that established the modern financial world order. For Nicolas Sarkozy, President of France, it is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to remake the global financial architecture and usher in an era of “regulated capitalism”. But beware the headlines that these leaders try to manufacture when they assemble for their credit crisis summit in Washington this weekend. Read more

Italy Min: US, Russia, Europe Should Build “New Security Order”

ROME (AFP)–U.S. President-elect Barack Obama should work with Russia and Europe to build a “new world security order” in which a missile shield would have no place, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Wednesday. Read more

Gordon Brown calls for new world order to beat recession

Prime Minister Gordon Brown will today set out a five-point plan to create a “stronger and more just” world order in the wake of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

Mr Brown will call on fellow world leaders to use the current worldwide economic downturn as an opportunity to thoroughly reform international financial institutions and create a new “truly global society” with Britain, the US and Europe providing leadership. Read more

UK’s Brown: Now is the time to build global society

LONDON (Reuters) - The international financial crisis has given world leaders a unique opportunity to create a truly global society, Britain’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown will say in a keynote foreign policy speech on Monday. Read more

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