And expect it not to demand the attention of the worlds foremost alliance which is right next door. I think this will be a priority, really the top priority, whether we wish it to be or not. Pivoting to asia would be wonderful, but i dont think the middle east will be willing to accommodate. I think there are potential roles on a steady state basis for nato or nato members, and certainly also in crises, which i think unfortunately will demand natos attention. Second, i think russia looms, at least as importantly, and i think here nato has to think about a hedge against russian futures. And the russian future that i worry most about is a declining russia, and this is in part due to the shale gas revolution, which is dropping the price of energy, which i think in essence is going to bankrupt russias state business model. And then theres also some very daunting demographic factors that are going to, i think, really create some new challenges for russia. And i worry about a russian leader
Important it is that they go out and tell their parliamentarians how central nato is and defense spending is, we have a job to do here ourselves. Our interim general scocroft that when were thinking here how to engage in capitol hill that narrative. Ill take the woman in the back. Thanks. My name is trina flocrant. While in washington im at the transatlantic academy. What you said about the nato issue is music in my ears. I just wish it had been said by the defense and Deterrence Program or defense and deterrence posture review whats going on. Because one of the things that was very apparent during that time was the silence from and i know that you as ambassador could probably not say what you said now, but from an american perspective, there was very little said to actually push the europeans in that direction you just outlined. I can say this because im a european. I think without the americans taking the lead, and quite frankly, lecturing and pushing the europeans on issues like thi
Is set to discuss strategy with Health Insurance ceos. White house meeting comes after obama adds a substantial change to the law. The president said thursday that Insurance Companies can offer another year of coverage under their existing plants. Thats because people have been losing coverage and havent been able to find new plans on the healthcare. Gov website. It continues a white house official says that obama and senior aides are meeting with a senior officials to discuss Holding People enrolling in new plans and help to minimize any disruptions as consumers switch to new plans. The official was not authorized to speak publicly in advance about the meeting. They spoke on the condition of anonymity. That from the associated press. At the head of the Congressional Budget Office testified wednesday before the house and the Senate Budget Conference Committee Douglas Elmendorf told the lawmakers even shortterm agreement on spending levels would be better than no deal at all. Conference
And expect it not to demand the attention of the worlds foremost alliance which is right next door. I think this will be a priority, really the top priority, whether we wish it to be or not. Pivoting to asia would be wonderful, but i dont think the middle east will be willing to accommodate. I think there are potential roles on a steady state basis for nato or nato members, and certainly also in crises, which i think unfortunately will demand natos attention. Second, i think russia looms, at least as importantly, and i think here nato has to think about a hedge against russian futures. And the russian future that i worry most about is a declining russia, and this is in part due to the shale gas revolution, which is dropping the price of energy, which i think in essence is going to bankrupt russias state business model. And then theres also some very daunting demographic factors that are going to, i think, really create some new challenges for russia. And i worry about a russian leader
When we cannot deter, we have to think about collective defense, but the point is this defense has to be collective. Nato has been defined by values and by common goods, security being a common good, not by the threats or the challenges. What i mean is, whatever the challenge, whatever the challenges, the common good we want to protect is the same. So in that respect, we have to be able to interpret, not even extensively, but to update the concept of our attack. The part made here about no military warfare being possible today without cyber dimension, about space, its a clear case for considering these dimensions as part of nato responsibility. It may well be that some of them require nato to work with other organizations or other forums, but there has to be they have to be present also in nato. The bottom line about where we can deter and where we cannot deter is westfallion plus International Environment is two stages. Even if the most democratic one and the most authoritarian dictat