During Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's recent visit to Berlin, two agenda items garnered attention: closer economic ties with Europe and help fighting the drug trade.

Europe is charging ahead on the former. Negotiations over a free trade agreement (FTA) began in mid-February, leaving the EU poised to gain where the United States lost last year. After two years of negotiations and substantial expenditures of political capital by both the Bush administration and President Uribe, Congress refused to vote on the U.S.-Colombia (FTA) over concerns about human rights and labor standards--even after the FTA was revised to include enforceable labor provisions. (The bill ultimately fell victim to an underlying difference in perspective: The Bush administration saw the FTA as a tool for strengthening national security through economic development that could undercut drug activity in Colombia, but the Democrats in control of Congress saw it as a reward that Colombia did not deserve).

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Obama's "secret letter to Russia" path could destroy NATO cohesion and undermine pro-Americanism where it is still strong.

By Jan Jires

The U.S. missile defense project has always been a divisive issue both at home and abroad. Domestic critics of the project, which the Bush administration vigorously promoted, have questioned the technical feasibility of the proposed system as well as its cost-effectiveness.

Many critics abroad have been preoccupied with broader political implications of the project. They worry that the delicate parity between the leading nuclear powers and the resulting situation of "mutually assured destruction" established during the Cold War will be ruined by a missile defense system, and that the planned deployment of the system's components on the territory of Central European NATO allies will irritate Russia. It is rather ironic that they have succeeded in presenting their opposition to missile defense as a rejection of the "Cold War logic of arms race" and in accusing the supporters of the project of "Cold War mentality".

The Obama administration is, of course, entitled to review the project it inherited and to evaluate its technical feasibility, economic sensibility and political desirability. It should, however, be aware of the fact that the debate about the project has long ago ceased to focus on its declared purpose (protecting the U.S. and NATO from missiles coming from unstable countries in the Middle East and Asia) and has been transformed into a game heavily charged with political symbolism.

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The HIV epidemic in Russian continues, despite the nation's efforts to expand treatment. Unfortunately, those efforts aren't focusing on the primary source of the problem -- injecting drug users. If Moscow is serious about curbing the epidemic, it needs to sharpen its focus on that high-risk population in much the same way Thailand focused its HIV efforts on its own high-risk population, commercial sex workers.

First, some data that illustrates the problem.

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During the brief Russia-Georgian war in August 2008, many Europeans rejoiced that the EU had at last woken up to reality in Eastern Europe. Were it not for French President Nicolas Sarkozy's febrile shuttling in Tbilisi and Moscow, the war could have dragged on longer. The 27-nation bloc acted as the "honest broker" in the event.

Regrettably, the real troubles have returned--and new ones have emerged--ever since that conflict. The EU has not noticeably stepped up its diplomatic and military role in the conflict-ridden areas of the region. The umpteenth "gas war" between Russia and Ukraine in January exposed once again Europe's impotence before its energy dependence on Moscow and on unstable transit countries. To the peoples in the region, Europe continues to give the impression of being the bystander to Russia's newfound belligerence. With the credit crunch now hitting violently some Eastern European economies, the EU risks to give the impression of being the bystander--full stop.

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British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's recent visit to the White House went according to plan. And that's what upset the British. There was no jovial banter between the two heads of state, no elaborate press conference or special honors bestowed on Brown, and no assurance by Obama that Great Britain enjoys a privileged relationship with America. To a country accustomed to a special standing with the world's superpower, Brown's uneventful trip to Washington was a disaster and marks a seismic shift in US-British relations.

President Bush's well-known friendship with former PM Tony Blair during the past eight years reinforced the long-standing perception that Great Britain is a unique ally of the United States. In fact, since the Suez Canal crisis of 1956, Great Britain has reliably supported the American stance on most major foreign policy issues (including the Iraq War). In return, British officials have enjoyed unprecedented access to American leaders. Churchill famously coined the Anglo-American link a special relationship.�

But the Obama administration is not picking favorites, to the great dismay of Great Britain.

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As the economic crisis continues, feelings on both sides of the Atlantic have been hurt.

Americans are accusing European countries of not doing enough to stimulate demand while Europeans are dismayed that the U.S. is unwilling to implement regulations to prevent such a crisis from happening again. I do not foresee an easy solution to these disputes. However, leaders on both sides of the Atlantic can look beyond such disagreements and focus on an area where they can make substantial progress: trade.

The Doha Trade round was initiated in 2001 to cut tariffs and other barriers to trade within the WTO framework. After a number of attempts, negotiations stalled in 2008 and there has been little progress since. The key point of disagreement is agricultural supports, particularly within the U.S. and EU. Along with the EU, some developing countries seek a significant cut in American price-distorting agricultural support while the U.S. wants a reduction in tariff barriers in the EU and developing countries. However, negotiating positions have converged in the last seven years and the major ingredient now lacking is political will.

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