Atlantic Council blogs

Tensions flare between Kremlin, Belarus strongman

By Stuart Williams, AFP

Leader of Belarus seeks strategic relations with U.S.

By Andrei Makhovsky, Reuters

From Andrei Makhovsky, Reuters:  Belarus’s outspoken leader Alexander Lukashenko, long at odds with the West but lately quarreling with Moscow, said on Friday he wanted better ties with the United States and berated his estranged ally Russia.

Helping Pakistan Helps Ourselves

By James Joyner

As my colleague Shuja Nawaz has eloquently argued, massive American aid to help Pakistan recover from the humanitarian disaster of the recent flooding "may help improve America’s image among a population that generally resents the United States."  But the converse is true, too:  doing too little will bolster the Taliban.

Russia to send 7 officials to Kyrgyzstan as part of OSCE police mission

By RIA Novosti

From RIA Novosti:  Seven Russian officials will be part of a police advisory group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Kyrgyzstan, the Kremlin said on Friday. The group, headed by former head of the OSCE Center in Bishkek Markus Mueller, will also comprise officials from Turkey, Serbia, Latvia, Bulgaria, Slovakia, […]

Defining Success in Afghanistan

By Jorge Benitez

Stephen Biddle recently returned from Afghanistan and provides a uniquely qualified assessment of defining success in that conflict. 

NATO members not honoring alliance commitments

By Tom Bowman, NPR

From Tom Bowman, NPR:  A few weeks ago, hundreds of artillery troops and air defense artillery soldiers from Fort Sill in Oklahoma and Fort Campbell in Kentucky started heading over to Afghanistan. They weren’t part of the so-called surge in combat troops. Instead, Defense Secretary Robert Gates signed orders for them to work as trainers […]

Republicans reject Obama’s Turkey envoy

By Josh Rogin, the Cable

From Josh Rogin, the Cable:  The nomination of Frank Ricciardone to be the next U.S. ambassador to Turkey is being held up in the Senate and the GOP has no intention of allowing a vote on the nomination any time soon. A spokesperson for Sen. Sam Brownback, R-KS, confirmed to The Cable that his office […]

Europe Gets it Right

By Kurt Volker and Juan Zarate

The view of a failing Europe is en vogue, and for understandable reasons. The contours of crisis are glaring: bloated budgets, aging populations, declining military capabilities, and the fracturing of political solidarity over a range of issues from Russia and energy to enlargement and Turkey. Such is the conventional wisdom about a once too-comfortable Europe, […]

NATO’s Training Mission in Iraq “faces a significant shortfall”

By Lt. Gen. Michael Barbero, NATO Training Mission Iraq

From Lt. Gen. Michael Barbero, NATO Training Mission Iraq:  NATO has made an important commitment to Iraq. This commitment has borne fruit; the Iraqi Security Forces are in the lead securing Iraq and are becoming increasingly more capable and professional.

SecDef targets top officers in Europe in plan to trim brass

By Craig Whitlock, the Washington Post

From Craig Whitlock, the Washington Post:  Of all the spending cuts and budget battles the Pentagon is confronting, none is causing more angst than Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates‘s vow to start getting rid of generals and admirals. By almost any measure, the military is more top-heavy an institution than it has been for decades. […]