When NATO heads of state meet in Chicago this Sunday and Monday, two key worries will be on their minds. In a departure from the past six decades, the US has come to style itself as a Pacific, rather than Atlantic, power. And the Europeans are busy plundering their defense budgets in order to cope with the economic crisis. Any one of those two events alone would have a dramatic effect on how the alliance works. Taken together, they risk pushing NATO into irrelevance, writes the CER’s Tomáš Valášek.

In the first days of this year’s tropical weather, the number of calls to the Czech fire brigade (HZS) tripled. We should see this as a warning. An indication of how necessary this demanding profession is and that it is imperative for this component of the integrated rescue system to be operational. Anybody who has seen them in action knows this – but does the government and the Ministry of Interior?