As we wrap up high summer, it's a sensible time to look ahead at the fall and think about the big tasks facing the NATO Alliance and US European Command. The Olympics and the Jubilee fade to memory, and hopefully most folks have managed to break away for a short vacation to recharge. The autumn will be a busy time.

There is something of a red carpet, a press of media, crowds everywhere, the buzz of deal cutting and gossiping, all held in an elegant 18th century hotel in the heart of Bavaria.

Yesterday the Commander s Interagency Engagement Group CIEG hosted the latest speaker in the EUCOM Forum for International Affairs series. Dr. Kathleen Reedy took a few days away from her work at the Human Terrain System Iraq Reachback Center to talk to roughly 50 EUCOM and AFRICOM personnel about identity and Islam with a focus on Muslims living in Europe and the Middle East. Dr. Reedy is an anthropologist PhD U. Edinburgh who has done a good deal of research into identity formation political symbols social and political identities and ethics. She raised a number of very interesting points in her talk which generated quite a lot of discussion and Q A afterwards.