Atlantic Council blogs

Top News: SCAF Holds Urgent Meeting

By Tarek Radwan

SCAF is currently holding an urgent meeting to discuss the country’s latest developments according to Ahram and Al Masry Al Youm. The meeting came as a surprise to many activists who said that they thought that SCAF’s role in Egyptian politics was over when they handed in authority to President-Elect Mohamed Morsy. 

Where are the Kingston Trio when you need them?

By Harlan Ullman

Where is the Kingston Trio when needed? For those who may not recall or weren’t born then, the group was a singing sensation of the late 1950s and early 1960s, so much so that the Trio achieved cult status. Their 1959 hit, “They’re Rioting in Africa (The Merry Minuet)” was eerily prescient of today in […]

The People’s Revolution: A Struggle of Labels Between 1952 and 2011 / من يكسب صراع “الشرعية” بين ثورتي الجيش والشعب؟

By Haitham Tabei

It would seem that the struggle for power and legitimacy between the political forces, the revolutionary youth movements and the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) in Egypt has shifted from the squares and streets of the capital city, to events in history. The conflict has multiplied, moving from an attempt not only to control […]

Cyber war on Iran may continue

By AFP

Czechs pressure Sweden on extending jet fighter lease

By Jan Lopatka, Reuters

From Jan Lopatka, Reuters:  The Czech government will start looking for a new provider of fighter jets unless Sweden improves its offer to extend a lease of its Gripen fighters now used by the air force, the Czech prime minister said on Wednesday.

Alleged Canadian spy caused ‘massive security breach’ of shared Western intelligence

By Philip Dorling, the Sydney Morning Herald

From Philip Dorling, the Sydney Morning Herald:  An alleged Canadian spy compromised Australian intelligence information in an espionage case that has sent shock waves through Western security agencies.

Romney’s Trans-Atlantic Policy Needs a Reboot

By Annette Heuser and Tyson Barker

Mitt Romney’s first foreign tour as the Republican Party’s likely presidential candidate includes visits to two European states. While designed to send a message to potential voters at home, particularly blue-collar Reagan Democrats in the Midwest, the trip will be about photo opportunities. Romney’s visit to London is meant to echo his own successful management […]

New EU mission to counter al Qaeda threat in Africa

By Adrian Croft, Reuters

From Adrian Croft, Reuters:  The European Union is to send experts to Niger to train its security forces to fight al Qaeda, signalling the depth of EU concern over the growing threat Islamist militancy poses to Africa’s Sahel region.

How Obama lost Europe

By Mark Leonard, Foreign Policy

From Mark Leonard, Foreign Policy:  [President Barack] Obama’s stellar personal ratings in Europe hide the fact that the Western alliance has never loomed smaller in the imagination of policymakers on either side of the Atlantic.

Ukraine’s Defense Minister: ‘We are ready to develop cooperation with NATO’

By the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine

From the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine: Ukrainian Defense Minister Dmytro Salamatin met with General Richard Shirreff, the Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe, within an official visit of NATO delegation to Ukraine.