Atlantic Council blogs

Atlantic Council blogs provide short-form analyses from Council experts and a wider community of global voices on the world’s most important news stories.
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SyriaSource

Apr 17, 2017

Has the International Community Succeeded in Creating a Safe Zone in Syria After Years of War?

By Hosam al-Jablawi

Turkey has come a long way in repairing and rebuilding infrastructure in areas formerly controlled by Syrian armed opposition groups. This is in part because of Turkey’s Euphrates Shield operation, which launched to support and protect its southern border from the Islamic State (ISIS, ISIL, Daesh) and block Kurds from unifying their territories in northern […]

Syria

IranSource

Apr 17, 2017

The Rise and Fall of Iran’s Khuzestan: A Calamity of International Significance

By Shirin Hakim and Kaveh Madani

In order to effectively address such multifaceted problems, we should shift our perspective towards the realization that environmental issues do not obey the confines of man-made borders and apply this understanding to seek pragmatic solutions.

Iran

UkraineAlert

Apr 17, 2017

New Poll Shows Ukrainians Hungry for Change

By Oksana Bedratenko and Katie LaRoque

A new poll shows that Ukrainians are hungry for change and finally seeing it at the local level. On April 10, the International Republican Institute (IRI) released its annual municipal survey, tracking the views of more than 19,000 Ukrainians in twenty-four cities. Three years since IRI’s first survey, residents in fifteen of the twenty-four cities […]

Ukraine

SyriaSource

Apr 14, 2017

Russia Won’t Forsake Assad—And We Shouldn’t Be Surprised

By Youssef Sadaki

It should not have surprised anyone when Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov disappointed his counterpart Rex Tillerson by insisting on standing by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Russia has unhesitatingly thrown its weight behind Assad since the start of the Syrian conflict, allocating massive resources to guarantee the Assad regime’s victory. But despite Russia’s publicly declared […]

Russia Syria

SyriaSource

Apr 14, 2017

Syria: Thinking Strategically

By Frederic C. Hof

Those who think that President Donald Trump can do nothing right—that he is incapable even of matching the performance of a broken clock—have a ready riposte to his cruise missile assault on a Syrian airbase from which a chemical weapons assault was launched: yes, the perpetrators deserved this. But what’s next? Where is the strategy?

Syria

New Atlanticist

Apr 14, 2017

The End of Corruption Culture in Latin America?

By Roberta Braga

Accountability in the region creates space for safer investments Odebrecht was once synonymous with Latin America’s most ambitious public works projects. Today, those who hear the name think only of the web of malfeasance that has engulfed the region and continues to extend beyond the continent. But, as negative as these new revelations may seem, […]

Brazil Central America

New Atlanticist

Apr 14, 2017

Trump Sends a Clear Message in Afghanistan

By Ashish Kumar Sen

By dropping the ‘mother of all bombs’ on an Islamic State target, the United States reaffirmed its commitment to fighting terrorism, said the Atlantic Council’s James B. Cunningham The United States sent a clear message of its commitment to fighting terrorism when it dropped the so-called mother of all bombs on an Islamic State target […]

Afghanistan

SyriaSource

Apr 13, 2017

Discussion with Aaron Stein on the End of Euphrates Shield

By SyriaSource

Hossam: Hi my name is Hossam Abouzahr and I am the editor in chief in the Rafik Hariri Center at the Atlantic Council. Today we’re going to talk with Aaron Stein about Turkey’s recent ending of the Euphrates Shield Operation in Syria. My first question is, what led them to ending the operation? It ended […]

Syria

NATOSource

Apr 13, 2017

Trump: NATO is Not Obsolete, but Allies Must Still ‘Pay What They Owe’

By Donald Trump, White House

In facing our common challenges, we must also ensure that NATO members meet their financial obligations and pay what they owe.

NATO Security & Defense

IranSource

Apr 13, 2017

Approved or Disqualified, Ahmadinejad Shakes Up Iranian Politics

By Shahir Shahidsaless

The news shocked Iran: controversial former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad registered to run again for president in the May 19 election. In front of tens of reporters, he visited the Interior Ministry on April 12 and filed the necessary documents.