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MENASource

Jun 19, 2014

Top News: Iraqi Army Controls Refinery But Militants Fight On

By MENASource

Militants stormed the complex in Baiji on Wednesday, setting fire to several storage tanks for refined products in a move that sent jitters through world oil markets. “Clashes stopped at about midnight Wednesday, but keep breaking out again from time to time,” an employee trapped inside the sprawling complex said by telephone. 

The newspaper Novaya Gazeta has published stories and photos of Russian volunteers -- including army veterans, armed motorbike club members and other nationalists -- whom the Kremlin secretly decorated for helping to seize Crimea from Ukraine. (www.novayagazeta.ru)

New Atlanticist

Jun 19, 2014

DIRECT TRANSLATION: Meet the Ex-Convicts, Bullies, and Armed Bikers Who Helped Seize Crimea

By Irena Chalupa

Putin Secretly Decorates Russian Volunteers Who Backed Moscow’s Troops in Takeover Russian President Vladimir Putin bestowed state honors in recent months on more than 300 Russians who it declared had done an outstanding job in helping Russia’s seizure from Ukraine of the Crimean peninsula. But the happy news has been kept strangely quiet. The official […]

Russia Ukraine

New Atlanticist

Jun 19, 2014

As Poroshenko Seeks Peace, His Main Interlocutor is Russia

By James Rupert

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is stepping up his attempt to negotiate an end to more than two months of fighting for control of eastern Ukraine, and his key dialogue in that effort will be with the Russian government.

Russia Ukraine

New Atlanticist

Jun 19, 2014

Storify: #FutureNATO with German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen

German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen visited Washington, DC on June 19th and spoke at an Atlantic Council event on how best to secure Europe amid rapid change and turbulence.

Germany

New Atlanticist

Jun 19, 2014

Ukraine News Roundup | June 19

By Irena Chalupa

My Mind-Melting Week On The Battlefields Of Ukraine from New Republic Putin Is Just Getting Started In Ukraine from Daily Beast Russia ‘Using Words To Destroy Meaning’, Say Writers from Guardian Parts Of Eastern Ukraine Gripped In ‘Reign Of Fear’, Says U.N. Official from Wall Street Journal Putin To Russia: We Will Bury Ourselves from Newsweek No Illusions Left, I’m Leaving Russia from Moscow Times Why […]

Ukraine

MENASource

Jun 19, 2014

Syria and Iraq: The “Skyes-Picot” Issue

By Frederic C. Hof

The violent convulsions gripping Syria and Iraq have given rise to the argument that the “Sykes-Picot” boundaries imposed by France and Britain in the Levant and Mesopotamia after the First World War will have to be redrawn to recognize and reconcile ethnic and sectarian divisions papered over by the Great War’s victorious allies.  As someone […]

Iraq Syria

MENASource

Jun 19, 2014

Top News: Egypt ranks 143 out of 162 countries in 2014 Global Peace Index

By EgyptSource

The Institute for Economics and Peace released its 2014 Global Peace Index (GPI) on Wednesday, in which Egypt ranked 143 out of 162, falling over 30 places and marking the second biggest loss in peace of any country in the world. 

Trade in Action

Jun 19, 2014

TTIP Action: June 19

By Global Business & Economics Program

Read more about TTIP and the global economy below.

Economy & Business Trade and tariffs

New Atlanticist

Jun 18, 2014

Disarm Russia’s Gas Weapon: Call Russia’s Bluff and Stem Ukraine’s Corruption

By Matthew J. Bryza

Europe Should Demand That Russia Sell Its Gas at One Basic Price for All EU States In a moment of friendly candor, one of Russia’s most senior diplomats once told me privately, “We Russian diplomats negotiate hard because we know we are weak.  When we have an issue on which we know we are strong, […]

Russia Ukraine

New Atlanticist

Jun 18, 2014

Iraq: The Hard Questions

By Bilal Y. Saab

Bilal Y. Saab, senior fellow for Middle East Security with the Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security, provides his perspective on the US role in the Iraq crisis, what’s at stake for US national security interests, and what it will really take to stabilize the situation.

Iraq