If Europe is surrounded by impoverished and unstable neighbors, its security, stability and prosperity will be damaged; if its neighbors are flourishing, Europe will benefit. That simple equation should lead both the EU and NATO to invest more in strengthening the countries beyond the borders of the Union and the Alliance. Yet so far, the two organizations have been slow to react to the failure of their existing regional policies, and reluctant to work together more effectively. Twenty-two countries are members of both organisations, yet it often seems as though the Union and the Alliance occupy different planets, rather than office buildings a few kilometers apart in Brussels.
It is understandable that the chaos in the Middle East has become Europe’s main preoccupation. State failure in Libya and brutal civil war in Syria have created the conditions in which hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants are now heading for the EU. But Russia’s behavior means that the future of both Europe and the transatlantic relationship will be shaped as much by what happens in Donetsk as in Damascus.
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Ian Bond joined the Centre for European Reform as Director of Foreign Policy in April 2013. Prior to that, he was a member of the British diplomatic service for 28 years. His most recent appointment was as political counsellor and joint head of the foreign and security policy group in the British Embassy, Washington (2007-12), where he focused on US foreign policy toward Europe, the former Soviet Union, Asia and Africa. He was British Ambassador to Latvia from 2005-07. He was posted in Vienna as deputy head of the UK Delegation to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) from 2000-04, working on human rights and democracy in the OSCE area, and on conflict prevention and resolution in the Balkans and the former Soviet Union. His earlier career included postings in Moscow (1993-96) and at NATO HQ (1987-90), and working in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on the former Soviet Union, on the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy and on NATO and UK defense policy. William Courtney is an adjunct senior fellow at the RAND Corporation and executive director of the RAND Business Leaders Forum, as well as president of the U.S.-Kazakhstan Business Association. In 2014 he retired from Computer Sciences Corporation as senior principal for federal policy strategy; from 2000 to 2003 he was senior vice president for national security programs at DynCorp (bought by CSC in 2003). From 1972 through 1999 he was a career foreign service officer in the U.S. Department of State. Among his many assignments he served as U.S. Ambassador to Georgia and to Kazakhstan, as special assistant to the President for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia, and as deputy US negotiator in US-Soviet defense and space (missile defense) talks. He graduated from West Virginia University with a BA and Brown University with a PhD in economics.
