.INFO: Poles expect more than diplomatic fluff from Barack Obama

It's no mystery that relations between Warsaw and Washington have become ever-more pragmatic over the past few years. The current Polish government - corresponding with public sentiment - has been advancing a more dynamic role for itself in Europe. And Mr. Obama's visit comes at a time where Polish positivity toward the US is rather questionable; it has been steadily declining since 1993. The perception of Mr. Obama himself is changing too. 

 Read the whole text on Deutsche Welle website

.COMment: EU-US data sharing

The Washington Post editorial of November 3, 2010 entitled Europe’s dangerous refusal to share air travel data talks about tensions in the EU-US counterterrorism cooperation and how 'distressing' they are. As an academic who spent the past six years researching transatlantic homeland security – and the EU-US PNR agreements in particular – I would like to comment on some of their observations.

.INFO: The US mid-term elections

The nostalgia for President Obama’s message of hope, change and post-partisanship articulated during the 2008 presidential elections was not enough to win over the majority of Americans preoccupied with high unemployment rates, slow economic growth and the country’s huge deficit. The Republican Party’s (GOP) win in the House of Representatives and the Democrats’ slight victory in the Senate are proof of Americans’ dissatisfaction with President Obama’s domestic agenda (e.g. the health care bill, government powers, unemployment, tax cuts) and suggest potential battlegrounds.