In another first for the AAPA, our members met with Defense Minister Gerard Longuet for breakfast at the ministry on the rue Saint Dominique on April 6. Questions covered a broad range, from the crisis in Mali to European missile defense and the stalemate over Iran.
In an open and lively exchange, Longuet said France would definitely give logistical support to a regional, African force to halt the insurgency in northern Mali and he said the United States was also capable of providing support.
“We have the material means, like the US, …

“It’s been a long time since I’ve stopped believing in such a thing as ‘off’,” quipped French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, before launching into an expansive review of foreign policy issues for 30 AAPA members last April 5 after being asked if he was “on-the-record.”
For almost two hours at the Quai d’Orsay, Juppe spoke about US-French and Franco-British relations, the crisis in Mali, elections in Senegal, the Syrian conflict, Iran, Europe’s economic and financial woes, ecology and sustainable development, European integration and even the forthcoming French elections.
Relations with Britain are …

 The US Ambassador to UNESCO, David Killion, must have heard the journalistic injunction “follow the breakfast” as there was an elegant table laid out for some 15 AAPA members April 3 at the ambassador’s residence in the 16th arrondissement. Not all press breakfasts are so well prepared, as those who have bitten into dry, industrial-quality croissants while scribbling in their notebooks on an empty stomach at early morning tables will know.
Killion talked about the effects of the US axing of contributions to the UNESCO budget, and the determination of the …

Anyone who comes up against the courageous, controversial Julian Assange, is « condemned to spend eternity discussing the cosmic meaning of Wikileaks, » wrote the New York Times’ editor Bill Keller recently, based on his deep involvement in the controversial saga.
While our two-hour, convivial meeting with one of Assange’s most-loyal supporters, Vaughan Smith, was no eternity, we certainly came away with a better understanding of Assange and his mission.
For some twenty members and guests who gathered at John Morris’ Marais apartment March 19, it was, above all, an opportunity to interact with …

If the 27-nations of the European Union want to re-launch their stagnating economies and EU political integration, it must be a collective effort and not that of one or even several leaders, and it will probably take years, according to Daniel Cohn-Bendit.
 
Speaking to some 20 AAPA members at the Paris headquarters of the European Parliament March 5, the outspoken leftist European deputy remarked that a relaunching of Europe has « never taken place in any one country, » and will require greater political will in the 27-nation bloc. Cohn-Bendit criticized the German-led …