Atlantic Council blogs

Trump Renews His Criticism of NATO: ‘It’s Obsolete’ and ‘Very Unfair’ to the US

By Donald Trump, Michael Gove, and Kai Diekmann, Times (London)

Excerpt from Donald Trump interview with Michael Gove MP and Kai Diekmann, former chief editor of the German newspaper Bild.

With Migration Policy Change, Obama Leaves Cuba Relationship to Trump

By Ashish Kumar Sen

White House ends policy that allowed Cubans reaching US soil to automatically apply for asylum US President Barack Obama’s decision to end the “wet foot, dry foot” policy that allowed any Cuban migrant who reached US soil to stay in the country will slow the number of Cuban immigrants rushing to the United States, but […]

OPEC Oil Deal Will Stick, say Energy Ministers

The oil production cuts set forth in a deal recently enacted by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will be upheld by the nations involved, effectively stabilizing the global energy market, Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo, OPEC’s secretary general, said in Abu Dhabi on January 12. “I remain very confident with what I have seen […]

Trump’s Energy, Climate Positions Causing Concern

By Ashish Kumar Sen

While there is “quite a bit of concern” about the direction of US President-elect Donald Trump’s energy policy, he is unlikely to take the United States out of the Paris climate change agreement for the simple reason that doing so would cause “huge collateral damage” to the United States, Todd Stern, a former US State […]

NATO Chief: We See ‘a More Assertive Russia’

By Jens Stoltenberg, NATO

We don’t see any imminent threat against any NATO ally. What we see is a more assertive Russia.

Tillerson on Syria

By Frederic C. Hof

When speaking about Syria, President Obama and his key aides have never denied the vital connection between the Assad regime’s collective punishment survival strategy—mass homicide, wholesale displacement, starvation sieges, Nazi-style penal practices, state terror—and the ability of Islamist extremists in Syria to live long and prosper. But by failing to complicate and slow the sanguinary […]

Analysis: The Fifth Corps and the State of the Syrian Army

By Abdulrahman al-Masri

On November 22, the General Command of the Syrian Army announced the formation of its first official volunteer-based military force, the Fifth Assault Corps. The official statement described it as a commando force aimed at “fighting terrorism,” which would be deployed alongside other army units and foreign allied forces (but did not specify where). Among […]

US Should Require Russia’s RT to Register as Foreign Agent

By Elena Postnikova

Russia used RT, its TV channel, to influence the recent US elections. This was the finding of the recently declassified US intelligence report; it concluded that Russia implemented a multifaceted campaign involving disclosures of data obtained through hacking, intrusions into state and local electoral boards, and propaganda. While the American elite is debating an appropriate […]

Trump Has Tweeted Himself into a Red Line, Says Lindsey Graham

In order to end the war on terror and attain a lasting peace in the Middle East, as well as protect US security interests, Donald Trump’s administration must invest in long-term solutions, or face the consequences down the road, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said on January 10. “To protect what we have here, we have […]

The Tillerson Hearing: What Was Said about the Middle East

By Elissa Miller and Emily Burchfield

On January 11, President Elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, participated in a marathon nine-hour confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The committee members pressed the former ExxonMobil CEO on a host of issues, including his reported ties to Russia and his views on extremism.