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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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REUTERS/Gary Cameron

AfricaSource

May 7, 2014

US help against Boko Haram: “Everything we can do” is not very much

By Bronwyn Bruton

Amid surging public outrage in Nigeria and abroad over Boko Haram’s kidnapping of 223 schoolgirls, President Barack Obama has promised that the United States will do “everything it can” to rescue them. His promise follows a pledge by Secretary of State John Kerry to do “everything possible” to help the Nigerian government defeat Boko Haram, […]

Conflict Extremism
SACEUR Gen. Philip Breedlove, May 5, 2014

NATOSource

May 7, 2014

NATO Scrambles to Knit Together a Cyberwar Strategy in Face of Attacks

By Murray Brewster, Canadian Press

Moscow’s stealth annexation of Crimea was accompanied by a highly co-ordinated cyber campaign aimed at civilian and military targets — a brutally effective effort, said U.S. Gen. Phillip Breedlove, who is visiting Canada this week.

Cybersecurity NATO

MENASource

May 7, 2014

Sisi in the Hot Seat: Reading Between the Lines

By Wael Eskandar

Former Field Marshall and presidential hopeful Abdel Fattah al-Sisi appeared on television for the first time in an extended interview on May 5 and May 6 of 2014. The interview was conducted by two leading presenters in Egyptian media who championed the ouster of former present Mohamed Morsi, Ibrahim Eissa, known to have been an […]

Elections North Africa
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, May 6, 2014

NATOSource

May 7, 2014

Prime Minister Abe: Japan and NATO Are ‘Natural Partners’

By Shinzo Abe, Office of the Prime Minister of Japan

Why Japan and NATO?

Japan NATO
Canada's Chief of Defense Gen. Tom Lawson and SACEUR Gen. Philip Breedlove

NATOSource

May 7, 2014

NATO Commander Says Permanent Troop Presence Possible in Central Europe

By CBC News

Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its “direct involvement in agitating the situation in eastern Ukraine” has created a “new paradigm” that is forcing NATO to consider permanently stationing military assets in Eastern Europe, NATO’s top military commander in Europe said Tuesday.

NATO Russia

MENASource

May 7, 2014

Top News: Tunisia to Offer Amnesty to Jihadists Not Convicted of Murder

By MENASource

Tunisia’s president promised an amnesty Tuesday for jihadists who disarm and who have not been convicted of murder but gave no further details of the proposed amnesty. Under the current anti-terrorism law, adopted in 2003 under Ben Ali, heavy prison sentences can be handed to anyone linked to a banned group, whether or not the […]

MENASource

May 7, 2014

Top News: African Union to Monitor Egypt’s Presidential Elections

By EgyptSource

The African Union will send a mission of parliamentarians, journalists and civil society representatives to monitor the upcoming presidential elections, Foreign Ministry spokesman Badr Abdelatty said on Wednesday.

MENASource

May 7, 2014

Electoral Law Brings Tunisia One Step Closer to Completing Transition

By Duncan Pickard

The National Constituent Assembly (NCA) adopted an organic law on elections on May 1, marking the next step in Tunisia’s transition to democracy and clearing the way for presidential and parliamentary elections in the fall. Adoption of the law was a necessary next step in Tunisia’s political transition after the passage of the new constitution […]

North Africa

AfricaSource

May 6, 2014

Transatlantic Trade and Security: A View from Morocco

By Atlantic Council

On both sides of the Atlantic in recent months, governments have acknowledged ongoing negotiations for the Transatlantic Free Trade Agreement (TAFTA), a free trade agreement between the European Union and the United States. Though the merits of this future transatlantic partnership went largely challenged at the outset, some differences of opinion have lately emerged among […]

Morocco

AfricaSource

May 6, 2014

Muddying the African Waters: Assessing U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s Visit to Africa

By Bronwyn Bruton

Secretary of State John Kerry ended an impromptu six-day tour of Africa yesterday, May 5. The trip was undertaken with little fanfare—the State Department announced the visit just a few days before his departure—and the Secretary’s activities received little attention from the press. (None of the five major American television networks even opted to send […]

East Africa Ethiopia