Atlantic Council blogs

Germany Expels Four Syrian Diplomats in Spy Case

By Nicholas Kulish and Alan Cowell, the New  York Times

From Nicholas Kulish and Alan Cowell, the New  York Times:  As tensions mount between Western nations and Syria, the German authorities said on Thursday they had ordered the expulsion of four Syrian diplomats after arresting two men accused separately of spying on opponents of President Bashar al-Assad.

Why Russia Supports Assad

By Dimitri Trenin, the International Herald Tribune

From Dimitri Trenin, the International Herald Tribune:  The Russian government is openly conservative; it abhors revolutions.

Republicans need more than rhetoric on defense

By George F. Will, the Washington Post

From George F. Will, the Washington Post:  The U.S. defense budget is about 43 percent of the world’s total military spending — more than the combined defense spending of the next 17 nations, many of which are U.S. allies.

SCAF’s Complicity in Port Said Violence Cannot Go Unpunished

By Bahaa Hashem

 When Hosni Mubarak’s former Interior Minister Habib El-Adly headed Egypt’s feared and notoriously repressive security apparatus, the ministry amended its former slogan, “The police serve the people” to “The police and the people serve the nation,” signaling a subtle yet insidious shift in the institution’s philosophy and mission. After the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak last […]

Adbusters Wants 50,000 G8/NATO Protesters in Chicago

By Lisa Balde and Phil Rogers, NBC Chicago

From Lisa Balde and Phil Rogers, NBC Chicago:  The activist group that helped initiate Occupy Wall Street is rallying troops for a "big bang in Chicago" ahead of the G8/NATO summits this May.

Israel, Iran and the United States: All Options Are Bad!

By Don Snow

The growing confrontation between Israel and Iran over the Iranian nuclear weapons program is spinning perilously out of hand, and it has within it the seeds of the most potentially dangerous threat to international peace since the Cold War ended over 20 years ago. What we are witnessing is a verbal run-up to a military […]

Syria Cyber War Opens New Front In Russia

By Jonathan Earle, the Moscow Times

From Jonathan Earle, the Moscow Times:  The cyber front of Syria’s year-old civil war spread to Russia this week as pro- and anti-government bots splashed criticism and expressions of gratitude across the Russian Internet, and Syrian hackers attempted to commandeer the website of a Russian embassy.

Cyber battles over Syria raging across the Internet

By Abigail Fielding-Smith, the Financial Times

From Abigail Fielding-Smith, the Financial Times:  The conflict between supporters and opponents of the regime of Mr Assad is being fought just as urgently in the cybersphere as on the streets of Homs, and goes far beyond trading insults. Two shadowy transnational armies slug it out on a daily basis for control not of streets […]

NATO: From military alliance to talk shop?

By Oxford Analytica, CNN

From Oxford Analytica, CNN: Every generation of Western politicians has dreaded the possibility of NATO’s demise.

Turks seek world action as Syria’s Homs bleeds

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis, Reuters