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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New Atlanticist

Sep 1, 2016

The UN Goes to South Sudan. Here’s What to Expect.

By Ashish Kumar Sen

Divided Security Council diplomats will likely deliver mixed messages on a rare visit to Juba, said Atlantic Council’s J. Peter Pham A sharply divided United Nations Security Council will likely end up delivering mixed messages this week on a rare visit to South Sudan—a nation that is once more on the brink of full-blown civil […]

East Africa International Organizations
Deputy Secretary General Alexander Vershbow, Feb. 2, 2015

NATOSource

Sep 1, 2016

Vershbow: NATO and Finland Consult ‘at the Highest Levels’

By Alexander Vershbow, NATO

Following our Wales Summit in 2014, Finland became one of NATO’s Enhanced Opportunities Partners (or EOPs), which means more co-ownership, more dialogue on cooperative security, and more interaction together.

NATO NATO Partnerships
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, May 28, 2010

NATOSource

Sep 1, 2016

Erdogan Government Fueling ‘Unprecedented’ Anti-Americanism in Turkey

By Henri J. Barkey, New York Times

Turkish society has long been steeped in conspiracy theories, but the widespread stoking of anti-Americanism today is unprecedented.

NATO Security & Defense

SyriaSource

Sep 1, 2016

The Art of Burial During War

By Hikmat al-Habbal

In Syria, another tragedy begins after death. People who went out on the streets to change the status quo are surprised at how burial methods have changed and Syrians’ rituals around death are disappearing.

Syria

UkraineAlert

Sep 1, 2016

Paul Manafort’s Ukrainian Legacy

By Sergii Leshchenko

I have seen Paul Manafort twice in my life. The first time was in 2007 during a Ukrainian lunch at Morosani Hotel in Davos, Switzerland, where Viktor Yanukovych came to speak. The second time was at a solemn reception in honor of Yanukovych’s 2010 inauguration at the Ukrainian House in Kyiv; Manfort arrived with oligarch […]

Ukraine

SyriaSource

Sep 1, 2016

Sanctions as a Viable Action in a Complicated Environment

By Susan Waltz & Hossam Abouzahr

When the US Congress returns from its summer recess, the House of Representatives is slated to consider the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act of 2016. The legislation—intended to expand the existing Syrian sanctions regime—is named after “Caesar,” the pseudonym of a military defector who smuggled some 53,000 photographs out of Syria in 2013 documenting the […]

Syria
US soldiers of the 91st Cavalry Regiment, May 11, 2015

NATOSource

Aug 31, 2016

Members of Congress: US Must Stand Strong for Allies and Principles

By Chris Coons and Charlie Dent, Philadelphia Inquirer

As a Republican representative from Pennsylvania and a Democratic senator from Delaware, we disagree on our fair share of issues.

NATO Northern Europe

UkraineAlert

Aug 31, 2016

Anti-Corruption Cases Are Finally Moving Forward in Ukraine

By Adrian Karatnycky

Something is stirring in Ukraine’s war on corruption. Since the Maidan protests of 2013-14 toppled the regime of former President Viktor Yanukovych and revealed the details of the criminality and venality of his inner circle, attacking corruption has been a focal point of public expectations. Important progress has been made on key reforms. Under the […]

Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Aug 31, 2016

Russia and Turkey: Rapprochement and Its Implications

By John E. Herbst

The rapprochement between Russia and Turkey is a significant geopolitical development that increases the leverage of each nation. Where the interests of Moscow and Ankara do not conflict, their new relationship will be useful to both. Yet their different interests limit the significance of the new amity.

Russia Turkey

New Atlanticist

Aug 31, 2016

Future Tense: Karimov’s Bitter Legacy in Uzbekistan

By Sabine Freizer

On September 1, Uzbekistan will celebrate its twenty-fifth anniversary of independence, but for the first time without its long-time president, Islam Abduganievich Karimov leading the dancing and music-filled celebrations in the capital Tashkent. Karimov suffered a stroke on August 27 and it is most likely that the seventy-eight-year-old, who was already in poor health, has […]

Central Asia