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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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IranSource

Oct 18, 2018

Iran’s Environmentalists Are Caught Up in a Political Power Struggle

By Tara Sepehri Far

The family of Kavous Seyed Emami, a prominent environmentalist and professor at Tehran’s Imam Sadegh University, broke the horrific news on February 10 that he had died under suspicious circumstances while in detention. Iranian authorities claimed he had committed suicide. Only a few weeks earlier, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) intelligence arm had arrested […]

Iran

UkraineAlert

Oct 17, 2018

The New Cold War Could Learn a Lot from the Old One

By John E. Herbst

Territories between great powers—borderlands—have always been areas of strife. So it is with the countries caught between Russia and the West, those that were once part of the Soviet Union or firmly within its sphere of influence. Much of Europe has consolidated and, with the United States, established a lasting liberal democratic order, but Russia […]

Moldova The Caucasus

New Atlanticist

Oct 17, 2018

Our critical infrastructure is more vulnerable than ever. Here’s what we can do about it.

By Michael K. Daly

The United States, like many of its allies, is at a tipping point. We must step up and make it more difficult for our adversaries to breach our critical infrastructure.

Cybersecurity Infrastructure Protection

EnergySource

Oct 17, 2018

Poland’s role in Energy Bridge and regional energy security

By Melissa Hersh and Edward Kee

The following is the third installment in a three-part series on the proposed Energy Bridge project, an energy development and regional energy interconnection initiative for Ukraine and its neighbors. In Part 1 of this series, we described the Energy Bridge project and why it is an important initiative for Ukraine. In Part 2 of the series, […]

Central Europe Energy Markets & Governance

IranSource

Oct 17, 2018

Iran’s Natural Gas: A Gateway to US-Iran Cooperation

By Alan W. Lancaster and Thang Q. Tran

The broad economic sanctions that go back into effect against Iran on November 5 will not significantly impact Iran’s limited natural gas exports. Iran’s export potential could emerge as a gateway to cooperation under an appropriate US strategy. Multinational negotiations have focused on ways to increase oil production to compensate for Iranian oil lost to […]

Iran

UkraineAlert

Oct 17, 2018

How Ukraine Can Avoid Disaster in 2019

By Taras Kuzio

Ukraine’s 2019 presidential and parliamentary elections are the most important since the country became independent nearly three decades ago. If next year’s elections follow those held in 2014 when five pro-reform political forces won a constitutional majority, Ukraine’s European integration and withdrawal from the Russian world will be assured by the next election cycle in […]

Russia Ukraine

New Atlanticist

Oct 16, 2018

Latin Americans are tired of corruption—and increasingly tired of fighting it

By Jamie Shenk

As each new case helps illuminate the scale of corruption in Latin American politics, the resulting never-ending media coverage of corruption scandals is testing citizens’ patience and confidence.

Corruption Latin America

MENASource

Oct 16, 2018

The chilling effect of the Khashoggi case: A trigger for Arabs living in fear

By Tuqa Nusairat

Since the apparent murder-disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi on October 2, analysts have focused primarily on the implications for US-Saudi relations and the future of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman’s vision for domestic reforms. Absent from policy discussions and analysis is the impact of brutally silencing a mild critic of an autocratic regime on the psyche of 450 million Arabs, most of whom still live under regimes that severely limit freedoms of speech, protest, political participation, and religion.

Saudi Arabia

IranSource

Oct 16, 2018

FATF Legislation Reflects Continuing Political Divide in Iran

By Tahereh Hadian-Jazy

Enacting legislation against money laundering and terrorism financing has been a long struggle between the Iranian parliament, which is dominated by moderate conservatives and reformists, and the Guardian Council, whose members are largely appointed by Iran’s Supreme Leader. Parliament passed several laws in time for a meeting that began October 14 of the Financial Action […]

Iran

UkraineAlert

Oct 16, 2018

Ukraine, Anti-Semitism, Racism, and the Far Right​

By Adrian Karatnycky

October 14 saw the latest in a string of annual mass marches by the far right in Ukraine. As many as 10,000 people participated, mainly young men, chanting fiercely. A nighttime torchlight parade with signs proclaiming “We’ll return Ukraine to Ukrainians,” contained echoes of Nazi-style symbolism. Lax law enforcement and indifference by the security services to the operations of the far right is being noticed by extremists from abroad who […]

Russia Ukraine