Atlantic Council blogs

US increasing cyber cooperation with key allies

By John Reed, Killer Apps

From John Reed, Killer Apps:  The Defense Department has reached what Pentagon officials describe a key agreement with some of the United States’ closest international allies to share information in the cyber realm.

The Weak Hand of Somalia’s New President

By Peter Pham

Yesterday the members of Somalia’s rump parliament elected a civil society activist and educator, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, to head the failed state’s sixteenth transitional entity since 1991.  

Small Victory for Egyptian Campaign Against Compulsory Military Service

By Nancy Messieh

The ‘No for Compulsory Military Service Movement’ founded in 2009 has received little local media attention, save in connection with the imprisonment of one of its founders, Maikel Nabil, last year. Nabil, a pacifist and long-time opponent of the military institution in Egypt was sentenced on charges of ‘insulting the military’, and spent almost a […]

FM Fabius confirms French special forces extracted General Tlas from Syria

By John Irish, Reuters

From John Irish, Reuters:  France is trying to help more leading opponents of President Bashar al-Assad leave Syria, having aided several defectors, including General Manaf Tlas, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Tuesday

Army and Marines developing offensive cyber support ‘for the most forward, tactical commanders’

By John Reed, Killer Apps

From John Reed, Killer Apps:  The Army and Marine Corps are developing procedures that allow front-line troops to request offensive cyber support the same way they currently request artillery and air support.

Top News: Justice Minister Proposes New Emergency Law be Decreed by President

By Egypt Source

New Justice Minister Ahmed Mekky, respected for his battles for the independence of the judiciary under Mubarak, has proposed an amendment to the Emergency Law in preparation for the reinstatement of the state of emergency. 

If Caucasus erupts, war could spread

By Timothy Heritage and Francesco Guarascio, Reuters

From Timothy Heritage and Francesco Guarascio, Reuters:  Sporadic firefights have intensified along the front line around Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous enclave within Azerbaijan in the South Caucasus controlled by ethnic Armenians since a war in the early 1990s that killed about 30,000 people.

NATO Secretary General on impact of 9/11 on transatlantic alliance

Repost from Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO:  [Eleven] years ago today in the United States, terrorists killed nearly three thousand men, women and children. Citizens of 25 NATO Allied and partner countries died that day.

The Brotherhood’s Second Republic / جمهورية “الإخوان” الثانية

By Magdy Samaan

Various false notions are making the rounds in the media and research centers about the relationship between the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) in Egypt and the military establishment. It began with talk of a clash between the two parties, extended to rumors of a ‘Muslim Brotherhood coup against the military’ and most recently has shifted to […]

Russian meddling in Georgia’s desire for NATO membership

By Urmas Reinsalu, the Wall Street Journal