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

Jul 11, 2016

South Sudan: Heading Down a Familiar Road to War?

By Ashish Kumar Sen

The international community needs to take a more active role in defusing the crisis in South Sudan where gun battles between forces loyal to the president and vice president over the weekend resulted in the death of 200 people, said the Atlantic Council’s J. Peter Pham. Contending that South Sudan’s president, Salva Kiir, and his […]

East Africa

SyriaSource

Jul 11, 2016

First Development Project in Marginalised Region

By Khoshman Qado

Shar For Development has launched a first-of-a-kind development project in the north-eastern al-Jazirah plain to lure local investors and limit dependence on international support in the future. (ʿAmuda, al-Hasakah, Syria) The marginalising policies that the region of al-Jazirah has endured for decades have resulted in widespread unemployment, driving a great part of the workforce from the […]

Syria

UkraineAlert

Jul 11, 2016

No Longer a Secret: Ukraine is Europe’s New Frontier Market

By James Brooke

American, Canadian, and European Investors Quietly Descend on Kyiv Chestnut trees shade the streets, restaurants colonize sidewalks with “summer verandas,” and hemlines rise with the temperatures. Yes, it is summer again in Kyiv. But this summer, this garden city is seeing a new, discreetly invasive species: American and European investors who believe Ukraine is turning […]

Ukraine

MENASource

Jul 11, 2016

The Ideas Behind ISIS

By H.A. Hellyer

As the Arab world and Muslim communities worldwide react in horror to a suicide attack in Medina on the last eve of Ramadan—capping a violent few days that has taken close to 300 lives in Iraq, Turkey, and the Gulf kingdom—the world once again asks: what is this vigilante scourge that persists in engaging in […]

Bremain vs Brexit

Jul 9, 2016

Brexit and the Perverse Geopolitics of Leaving the European Union

By Manuel Muñiz and Bernardo Navazo

The result of the June 23 referendum in the United Kingdom could lead to the first instance of a member of the European Union leaving the Union’s ranks. Beyond the social and economic impact of such a decision, the move will have serious geopolitical consequences. And let us be clear from the start: the UK […]

European Union International Organizations

New Atlanticist

Jul 8, 2016

Putin Seen Out to ‘Destroy’ the European Union

By Mitch Hulse

Russia is exploiting the migrant crisis facing Europe with the goal of destroying the European Union, according to Madeleine K. Albright, a former US secretary of state. “The United States has felt that it is important to talk to the Russians about Syria and try to figure out whether there are places that we can […]

Russia Syria

New Atlanticist

Jul 8, 2016

An Army of Storytellers

By Victoria Langton

Public diplomacy has long been a positive tool of the United States and its partners, yet we are still losing in the battle happening online. At the Atlantic Council’s NATO Future Leaders Summit in Warsaw on July 7, three unique storytellers spoke about their experiences and efforts to bridge this online gap. Maxim Eristavi, a […]

New Atlanticist

Jul 8, 2016

A Far-Right Victory in Austria Would Be Bad News for the European Union

By Teresa Eder

The July 1 decision by Austria’s high court to overturn the results of the May presidential election presents another opportunity for the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) to come to power. That would be bad news for the European Union as the FPÖ’s presidential candidate, Norbert Hofer, has vowed to call a referendum, if he is […]

European Union International Organizations

SyriaSource

Jul 8, 2016

Evading the Point

By Frederic C. Hof

A recent editorial in The Los Angeles Times calls for American cooperation with Russia in Syria and, citing the Syria policy dissent memorandum offered by 51 “State Department staffers,” opines that “Frustrating as it may be, exploring the possibility of cooperation with Moscow in Syria is still preferable to trying to oust Assad through U.S. […]

Syria

AfricaSource

Jul 8, 2016

Israel’s Return to Africa

By J. Peter Pham

This week Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu became the first sitting Israeli head of government to travel to Africa since Yitzhak Rabin went to see Morocco’s King Hassan II in 1993. Netanyahu made stops in Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, and Ethiopia; while in Uganda, he also met with leaders from South Sudan, Tanzania, and Zambia. Although much […]

Africa East Africa