Charles Grant
Charles Grant
Director
Areas of expertise
Britain’s relationship with the EU, the ‘future of Europe’ debate, European foreign and defence policy, and China's relations with the West.
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Mr Prodi's second chance
01 June 2000
The Commission is no longer the driving force behind European integration. In most of the European Union's growth areas, such as foreign and defence policy, or justice and home affairs, the member-states are in charge. Even in the fashionable area of economic reform, the Commission has been partially sidelined: the...
Intimate relations: Can Britain play a leading role in European defence - and keep its special links to US intelligence?
05 May 2000
One of the most constant features of the geopolitical landscape is the special relationship between London and Washington on intelligence matters. One of the most rapidly changing and unpredictable elements of that landscape is the emergence of a European Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP).
Europe and missile defence
03 April 2000
On each side of the Atlantic a new defence initiative is seen from the other side as unnecessary, confusing and worrying: the Europeans' plan for a European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) and the Americans' plan for National Missile Defense (NMD).
How to help Russia
01 February 2000
Almost ten years after the collapse of Soviet Communism, most Russians accept that power should change hands through the ballot box, and that they need some sort of market economy. And yet their view of the world is very different from that of most Europeans or Americans.
The treaties need radical reform
01 December 1999
Inter-governmental conferences (IGCs) are insufferably tedious and complex affairs. Each drawn-out negotiation helps to reinforce the popular impression that the EU is irrelevant to ordinary peoples' lives.
Transatlantic tensions
01 December 1999
The friendship between the EU and the US is unusually strained, and the outlook appears bleak. Tension is most evident in the one area where the EU has a coherent foreign policy, trade (the EU's reluctance to implement WTO rulings on bananas and beef hormones has been shameful).
Britain in Europe
01 October 1999
The history of Britain's troubled relationship with the European Union has been far too repetitive. Every time that the continental countries want to deepen their union, the British hold back and predict failure; and later, when they see the venture working, they grudgingly join and accept rules written by others.
A golden opportunity for reform
02 August 1999
It is easy to forget that the Eurosceptical mood of many EU countries is a recent phenomenon. In the late 1980s, when the EU's prime task was the creation of a single market, its popularity grew in every member-state.
Europe's defence industry: A transatlantic future
02 July 1999
In December 1998 Europe's first major cross-border defence industry merger was imminent: a deal between British Aerospace (BAe) and DaimlerChrysler Aerospace (Dasa) had been agreed and all but signed and sealed.
European defence post-Kosovo
04 June 1999
European Union has long talked about building a defence capability, but done very little about it. In the first week of June 1999, however, two events gave a boost to the EU’s military aspirations. At the Cologne summit EU leaders agreed on a scheme that would enable the EU to...