At greatcharlie, our goal is to serve as an independent and objective voice on foreign and national security policy globally. Our knowledge and experience allows us to provide perspectives that are a bit more in-depth than what might be found in other blogs, at least for free! Our analytical approach is somewhat similar to analysis at the strategic, tactical, and also the operational level in governments. Given this, blog posts, tweets, and parlays presented from greatcharlie are very likely to parallel ideas being shared during debates among political leaders and policymakers in capitals involved in events being reported in Washington, DC and beyond. Initially, our regularly issued posts were all developed from New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal articles as well as other newspapers of record. To that extent, our focus was guided by the important headlines of the day in international affairs. (Any perception of an intentional bent toward one issue, region, or country, would have been completely mistaken.) News stories and commentaries from the articles found were not simply regurgitated. In the preparation of greatcharlie posts, newspaper articles are collected, information reported is interpreted, and readers were provided an analysis of the information’s importance relative to the issue at hand. Insights shared in our blog posts were never far fetched ruminations to draw followers prone to reading sensational comments. They are not politicized ideas designed expediently to draw followers of a certain political persuasion. The hope of greatcharlie was to stimulate the public debate, globally, on foreign and national security policy.  Today, in terms of our analyses, not too much has changed  However, topics covered are no longer based solely on headlines from established publishing outlets. Now they are those greatcharlie believes would be of most interest to our loyal readers..

The effort to stimulate the policy debate is also promoted on Twitter and Parler. Under the Twitter handle @greatcharlie1 and the Parler name @greatcharlie, posts from greatcharlie are tweeted and echoed to support the efforts of others in the “Twitterverse” and on Parler to remain informed of, and offer them our insights on, urgent and important foreign and national security policy issues.

In sum, greatcharlie is out there and part of the policy debate. As a promise, we will never seek to manipulate or persuade. We will simply provide commentary for foreign and defense policy makers, political and business leaders, and policy enthusiasts worldwide. We at greatcharlie welcome you! Always feel free to contact us on our blog or by email at contactgreatcharlie@gmail.com.

Why This Blog Is Named “greatcharlie”

The name greatcharlie is a direct reference to the medieval emperor of Europe, Charlemagne (c.742-814), also known as Karl and Charles the Great. Charlemagne was initially thought of as the blog’s name because its original focus was to be European foreign and national security policy. Given the rather heavy use of the name Charlemagne for a variety of matters, it was thought that the blog might get lost in the labyrinth. So to change the title a bit, acknowledge the primary focus of the blog would remain Europe, and create some degree of originality, the name greatcharlie, a very loose English translation of Charlemagne, was decided upon. The spelling of the title in lower case, came as a result of a thoughtless error when the blog was designed. However, it was decided that the blog would move forward with that spelling because it further created both the sense of creativity and originality.

Regarding Emperor Charlemagne, he is referred to by many today as the father of Europe. Following the death of Pepin III, Charlemagne became co-inheritor of the Carolingian Empire or Frankish Realm alongside his brother, Carloman I. The Franks were a Germanic tribe the resided in present-day Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and western Germany. Upon the death of Carloman I in 771, Charlemagne became the sole king of the Franks. He set off on a mission to unite all Germanic peoples into one kingdom, and convert his subjects to Christianity. As a result, he spent much of his reign engaged in warfare. Fortunately enough for him, he was a skilled military strategist and managed to extend his Kingdom as far as the Elbe. At Christmas In 800, Pope Leo III (750-816) crowned Charlemagne emperor of the Romans. As emperor, Charlemagne encouraged the Carolingian Renaissance, which was a cultural and intellectual revival in that region. It has been posited that as a result of his reign, the survival of Christianity in the West was ensured. At the time of his death in 814, Charlemagne’s empire included most of continental Western Europe North of the Pyrenees.

No contemporary illustrations of Charlemagne exist. However, a description provided by the Frankish scholar, courtier, and biographer of Charlemagne, Einhard (770-840), has inspired numerous portraits and statues. Above is a portrait of Emperor Charlemagne by Albrecht Durer (1471-1528). It is part of the collection of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum (Germanic National Museum), Nürnberg, Germany.

Non nobis, Domine, sad nomini tuo da gloriam.

Mark Edmond Clark, Founder/Editor