Charles Tannock
Charles Tannock is ECR Foreign Affairs Spokesman in the European Parliament.
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2011-11-15
| Free, fair, and transparent democratic elections are no longer strangers to Africa. But the presidential and parliamentary elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo at the end of November will likely be Africa’s most daunting electoral challenge so far.... read |
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2011-01-03
| With South Sudan’s referendum on independence set for January 9, the world holds its breath. Undoubtedly, South Sudan would face colossal challenges as a sovereign state, but the alternative – an inevitable return to war – would be incalculably worse, both for Sudan and for Africa.... read |
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2010-12-08
| The lack of effort on all sides to find a lasting compromise to the dispute over Kosovo’s independence threatens to undermine much of the progress made in the Western Balkans towards stability and democracy. Only a formal, mutually acceptable partition of Kosovo can achieve a full and final settlement.... read |
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2010-10-21
| The price of freedom, it is said, is eternal vigilance. But that price can take the form of morally squalid decisions in which innocent people bear the brunt of the cost of freedom’s defense - a point made vividly by the example of the forcible removal of the Chagos Islands' entire population.... read |
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2010-03-26
| Ethiopia has become a bastion of regional stability, and its leadership throughout the Horn of Africa could bring lasting change in a part of the world that has largely been written off. It is time to recognize the country's potential as a strategic partner for the West, and to give it the diplomatic tools that it needs.... read |
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2009-09-09
| After almost two decades as a failed state torn by civil war, perhaps the world should begin to admit that Somalia – as it is currently constructed – is beyond repair. If so, the place to start is the northernmost region, Somaliland, situated strategically at the opening to the Red Sea and already more or less autonomous and stable.... read |
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2009-05-04
| Strasbourg – The European Union recently embarked on a policy of “constructive engagement” with Belarus. None too soon. Previously, EU policy was to isolate Belarus, which itself was seeking isolation. ... read |
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2009-02-04
| Using oil or gas as a diplomatic weapon is easier said than done, as Middle Eastern producers learned in the 1970's. For that very reason, this year’s renewal of the Russia-Ukraine gas dispute, and the resulting cut-off of supplies to much of the European Union, should concentrate minds on the EU’s need to disarm those who would use the energy weapon.... read |
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2009-01-09
| As fears about the Islamization of politics in the Muslim world grow, Bangladesh, with the world’s fourth-largest Muslim population (114 million), has moved, stunningly, in the opposite direction. Indeed, the decisive defeat of the country’s Islamists in the recent parliamentary election may have revived the viability of “Muslim democracy” around the world.... read |
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Latin America’s Anti-Chávez Axis
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Charles Tannock 
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The rescue of Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages marks a turning point in Colombia’s war against its drug-running, Marxist guerrillas. But it also confirms the emergence of a new troika of Latin American leaders – in Colombia, Brazil, and Mexico – who aim to finish off the continent's destabilizing drug cartels and guerrilla movements, as well as to isolate Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.... read
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2005-04-19
| All wars end, eventually. But memories of atrocity never seem to fade, as the government-fanned anti-Japanese riots now taking place in China remind us. The 90th anniversary of the Armenian massacres of 1915, ordered by the ruling Young Turks of the Ottoman Empire and carried out with the help of the Kurds, is another wound that will not heal, but one that must be treated if Turkey’s progress toward European Union membership is to proceed smoothly. ... read |
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2006-02-13
| French President Jacques Chirac’s visit to India this month to complete the sale of 6 attack submarines to India will confirm once more India’s emergence as an economic and diplomatic powerhouse. The “strategic partnership” that both America and the European Union have at times sought with China looks both more plausible and more desirable with democratic India.... read |
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2008-05-08
| Brussels – There is no more depressing sight in politics than a leader who, desperate to cling to power, ruins his country in the process. By his recent actions, President Viktor Yushchenko of Ukraine now looks like he has joined the long list of rulers who have sacrificed their country’s future simply to prolong their misrule. ... read |
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2005-07-19
| Is Bangladesh headed into the black hole that consumed Afghanistan under the Taliban? Fears are mounting, as official and fundamentalist religious forces now seem to operate with impunity – and the apparent support of local police, the ruling Bangladeshi National Party, and local authorities. ... read |
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2004-10-06
| With its accusations about poisonings and conspiracies, Ukraine's presidential election campaign is a spectacle only the Borgias could love. Ten days ago, Viktor Yushchenko, the opposition candidate for president (who is leading in the polls), disappeared from the campaign trail. He re-surfaced in Vienna recovering from what at first was thought to be food poisoning. ... read |
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2006-09-29
| The world is consumed by fears that Iraq is degenerating into a civil war between Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds. But in this looming war of all against all, it is Iraq’s small community of Assyrian Christians that is at risk of annihilation. ... read |
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2004-12-06
| The European Union, after a three-year spat with President Bush, is keen to be regarded as a world player to be reckoned with. Many EU leaders see newfound respect coming in the form of a “strategic partnership” with China that is designed to balance the power of the United States. ... read |
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2006-08-28
| Powerful countries know that it is dangerous to be seen to flinch, because enemies take heart and allies’ knees begin to knock. A great power also knows that if it sets out on a military adventure without setting achievable goals, it can get into bad trouble. What’s true for great powers is doubly true for beleaguered Israel, which failed to dismantle Hezbollah’s power over Lebanon. But the Lebanon war’s failure may yet provide an opening to peace if Israel is bold enough to seize it. ... read |
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2007-09-20
| Once again, the Bush administration is preparing to leap into the unknown. Even though lack of foresight is universally viewed as a leading cause of its Iraq debacle, the United States is now preparing to recognize Kosovo’s independence unilaterally – and damn the consequences for Europe and the world.... read |
