Atlantic Council blogs

EconSource: Tunisia to Adopt Investment Code in Early October

By EconSource

Tunisia’s House of People’s Representatives (HPR) will adopt a set of economic bills at the beginning of October, Minister of Communication Technology and Digital Economy Noomen Fehri said, including an investment code.

Selling the Iran Deal

By Owen Daniels

Four arguments the Obama administration will use to win over Congress With lawmakers a little over a month into the sixty-day congressional review period for the Iran nuclear agreement or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), US President Barack Obama’s administration is racing to secure votes of approval from undecided congressmen. The President has already […]

Syria: Kicking the Can Down the Road

By Frederic C. Hof

The United Nations Security Council authorized a statement by the Council’s president on August 17 endorsing a new search process for a negotiated political settlement in Syria. “Syrian parties” would be invited to attend “more focused consultations and discussions” in “four thematic working groups.”

A Powerful Case for Swedish Membership in NATO

By Tomas Bertelman, Johan Molander, and Sven-Olof Peterson

This image of a Russia encircled by hostile forces, including an aggressive and growing NATO and European Union, was created to legitimize the regime’s actions.

Ukraine Steps Up Efforts to Recover Stolen Assets Abroad

Two Kyiv-based women—a lawyer who heads a state agency created to reclaim stolen assets abroad and a social activist-turned-politician who’s made a career out of exposing official corruption—spoke August 20 in Washington about their efforts to clean up Ukraine. Olena Tyshchenko is director of the Agency for Asset Recovery at Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs. […]

The Republic of Fear

By Amr Hamzawy

The Egyptian government issued a decree in July placing regulatory and independent agencies under the auspices of the president of the country, authorizing President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to replace the agencies’ leaders. This move effectively puts an end to the agencies’ independent regulatory role by threatening their ability to both ensure the executive authority does […]

Russia, Not Ukraine, is the Questionable Partner

By Melinda Haring

In its August 12 editorial, “Shaky Ukraine: Economics and Corruption Complicate Its War,” the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette calls Ukraine a “questionable partner” because of “resistance to economic reform and use of Islamist Chechen forces.” Too bad neither charge is true.

In Greece, It’s the End of Syriza as We Know It

By Ashish Kumar Sen

Elections will produce split in ruling party, says Atlantic Council’s Fran Burwell Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ decision to resign and call snap elections in an attempt to shore up support for a harsh bailout package will split his leftist party, says the Atlantic Council’s Fran Burwell. Syriza has been a “broken party” since Tsipras […]

Hacks and Attacks: How Do You React When China Conducts a Cyber Attack?

By Ashish Kumar Sen

World had similar feeling of being violated after Snowden’s revelations, says Atlantic Council’s Jason Healey When the news broke earlier this summer that hackers had breached the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and accessed the records of more than twenty million current and former federal employees, it prompted calls to punish China, which was believed […]

NATO Leaders Participate in Riga Conference on Strategic Communications

By NATO Strategic Communications Center of Excellence

On 20th August some of the most influential minds from the world of strategic communications, media, defence and security, will gather in Riga to discuss how strategic communications can strengthen the defence capabilities of NATO in the new information environment.