Content about North Atlantic Treaty Organization

EAST LANSING, MICHIGAN – Turkey has over the past few weeks become the spearhead of a joint Western-Arab-Turkish policy aimed at forcing President Bashar al-Assad to cede power in Syria.

This is quite a turnaround in Turkish policy, because over the past two years the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had gone out of its way to cultivate good relations with neighboring Syria, with whom it shares a long land border.

At least one Afghan National Army soldier has been killed and a NATO service member injured in eastern Paktika province.

According to local officials, the incident took place after militants ambushed a convoy of the Afghan National Army and NATO troops.

Paktika provincial co-ordination council representative Dadullah confirming the incident said, an Afghan army was killed and a NATO soldier was injured during the incident.

A US vessel carrying military hardware, including about 350 heavy vehicles, for NATO/ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) forces in Afghanistan sailed into Karachi on 31 December, where severe congestion plagues the port, and is still stuck there.

PRINCETON – The world may see Barack Obama as a leader weakened by the intractability of American domestic politics, but, as the 2012 presidential campaign heats up, the American public still sees him as a strong, capable leader in foreign affairs. Some 49% of Americans approve of his overall handling of foreign affairs, with 63% approving of his approach to terrorism and 52% approving of the withdrawal from Iraq. Contrast that with the 30% of Americans who approve of his handling of the economy, or the scant 26% who back his approach to the federal budget deficit.

WESTERN BALKANS - With every turn of the year over the recent period it has repeatedly become routine to draw a scoreboard of developments in South East Europe, in particular its core area of Western Balkans, by using a convenient term – contrast. No exemption this year, as successes are again followed by failures and achievements by stagnations.

Indeed, the year that is getting to a close was broadly characterized by tremendous contrasts, whilst the year ahead is most likely to continue the trend.

According to a report by Advance magazine, Finmeccanica  and Northrop Grumman Corporation, signed a Teaming Agreement in order to respond to the proposal for the NATO Computer Incident Response Capability (NCIRC) – Full Operating Capability (FOC).

This extensive managed service aims to provide information assurance to around 50 NATO sites and headquarters throughout 28 countries worldwide.

A ceremony to hand over to Poland a new batch of NATO files covering the period of 1980-1984 was held on 13 December, during the opening of the exhibition ‘Poland – a Long Journey to Freedom’ at the NATO Headquarters in Brussels. 

FYROM's Defence Minister Fatmir Besimi recently paid an official visit to Podgorica to meet his Montenegrin counterpart Boro Vucinic, MRTOnline reported.

The parties discussed issues of issues of mutual interest related to defense and countries' Euro-Atlantic integration. They agreed that regional cooperation is the only way to achieve Euro-Atlantic goals. Joint use of disposable resources in the future was also a topic at the talks.