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	<title>Soeren Kern, Strategic Insights Into America, Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship</title>
	<link>http://soerenkern.com/web</link>
	<description>Strategic Insights Into America, Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Fri, 11 Jun 2010 14:58:23 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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		<title>Spain: A Political Risk Analysis</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Spain’s debt-laden Socialist government is caught in a Catch-22 situation in which it has failed to satisfy conflicting demands to cut its budget and stimulate job creation and economic growth. If the government cuts public spending to the level needed to reduce the deficit, it will drag down economic growth and make it more difficult [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://soerenkern.com/web/?p=603</link>
			</item>
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		<title>Britain’s Looming Defense Budget Squeeze</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Although neither candidate has spelled out exactly where the budget axe will fall, military spending will almost certainly take a hit in coming years, regardless of who leads the next government. In fact, all three candidates say the status quo on military spending is unsustainable, and all are calling for a post-election strategic defense review [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://soerenkern.com/web/?p=606</link>
			</item>
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		<title>European Union: Global Security Actor or Paper Tiger?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The future direction of European defense is at a crossroads. On the one  hand, the NATO experience in Afghanistan has cast into stark relief the  limits of European military capacities, not only at the operational but  also at the political levels. On the other hand, the recently enacted  Lisbon Treaty offers [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://soerenkern.com/web/?p=599</link>
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		<title>Spanish Presidency of the EU: High Hopes, Low Expectations</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Spain holds the six-month rotating presidency of the 27-member European Union from January through June 2010. The following analysis explains the domestic political and economic context facing the Zapatero government during Spain’s EU presidency. It then examines in greater detail several of the Zapatero government’s stated priorities for Spain’s EU presidency, and then closes with [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://soerenkern.com/web/?p=586</link>
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		<title>Spain’s EU Presidency Greeted with Skepticism</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Spain’s six-month rotating presidency of the European Union, which began on Jan. 1, 2010, is off to a bumpy start. With the Lisbon Treaty now in effect, the traditional role of the EU rotating presidency has been downgraded. Responsibility for many issues which were once the domain of the rotating presidency now falls to the [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://soerenkern.com/web/?p=596</link>
			</item>
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		<title>“Minarets are our Bayonets”: The Swiss Vote to Ban Them</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Swiss voters on November 29 overwhelmingly approved a referendum to ban the construction of minarets, the tower-like structures on mosques that are often used to call Muslims to prayer. The surprise outcome of the referendum, which passed with a clear majority of 57.5 percent of the voters, represents a turning point in the debate about [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://soerenkern.com/web/?p=582</link>
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		<title>Mr Zapatero Goes to Washington</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero’s second term in office has not been a happy affair for Spain. Soundly re-elected on a post-modern platform of Socialism, pacifism and feminism just 18 months ago, Zapatero has since stumbled badly in the face of an economic crisis that shows no signs of abating. With his poll [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://soerenkern.com/web/?p=545</link>
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		<title>End of Obamamania? Europe&#8217;s Tepid Reaction to Obama&#8217;s Nobel</title>
		<description><![CDATA[European newspapers have reacted to Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize with a mixture of incredulity and scepticism. Almost without exception, newspapers across the continent (and political spectrum) are saying the award to Obama is premature and undeserved.
For many people, that conclusion seems perfectly reasonable. But coming from Europe’s sycophantic media establishment, which has spent the [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://soerenkern.com/web/?p=560</link>
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		<title>Lisbon Treaty: Europe’s Slow-Moving Coup d’État</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Irish voters have overwhelmingly approved the European Union’s controversial Lisbon Treaty, a document that will forever change the dynamics of European (and potentially global) politics. The “yes” vote comes less than 18 months after Irish voters gave the “wrong” answer by rejecting the treaty in a first referendum.
According to the final results, 67.1 percent of [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://soerenkern.com/web/?p=507</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Germany Swings to the Center-Right</title>
		<description><![CDATA[German Chancellor Angela Merkel cruised to victory in federal elections on Sunday with enough votes to form a new center-right government with her preferred partner, the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP). The results follow a trend in which Socialist parties across Europe have seen sharp declines in their popularity.

Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://soerenkern.com/web/?p=495</link>
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