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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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MENASource

May 9, 2017

After ISIS the US Will Still Have a Role in Iraq—But Does It Care Enough to Play It?

By Feras Hanoush

The fight against ISIS in Iraq is in full swing. Despite the costly human errors that caused the death of hundreds of Mosul residents, the offensive forces continue to make progress, having managed during the past months to isolate, besiege, and take control of over 60 percent of the city.

Iraq

IranSource

May 9, 2017

Iran Election Gives Rare Opening to Syria Intervention Critics

By Sina Azodi

Iran’s presidential election campaign has opened an opportunity for rare criticism of the country’s interventionist foreign policies.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/nato/34532838925/

NATOSource

May 9, 2017

Why We Need NATO: The Overlooked Benefits of Interoperability

By Thomas Levenson, Boston Globe

It’s just 5.56 centimeters long — about 2 inches — and only 5.7 millimeters in diameter at its business end.

NATO Security & Defense

New Atlanticist

May 8, 2017

For Macron, the Hard Part Starts Now

Emmanuel Macron’s election as the next president of France marks a defeat for Russian President Vladimir Putin and a setback for the wave of populism that has swept the West, but France is not out of the woods just yet. “Vladimir Putin emerges as a loser,” said Daniel Fried, a former US assistant secretary of […]

France

UkraineAlert

May 8, 2017

How Trump Can Fix US-Russia Ties

By Alexander Vershbow

US President Donald Trump will have his first high-level meeting with a Russian representative this week, when Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov comes to the White House following a scheduled meeting with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. The stakes are high: about the only thing on which Moscow and Washington agree is that relations are at […]

Russia Ukraine

New Atlanticist

May 8, 2017

Macron’s Victory is Welcome News for Saudi Arabia and Qatar

By Giorgio Cafiero and Theodore Karasik

Emmanuel Macron’s election as the next president of France is positive news for Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Among the four leading candidates in the presidential election, Riyadh and Doha most favored Macron, whose foreign policy positions are pro-European Union (EU) and who is expected to continue Paris’ overall approach to international affairs. More specifically, Macron’s […]

European Union France

New Atlanticist

May 8, 2017

The West’s Future Depends on the Political Center

By Stanley Sloan

Later in May, US President Donald J. Trump is scheduled to attend his first NATO summit. The summit will take place at a time when most NATO and European Union (EU) leaders are breathing a sigh of relief with centrist Emmanuel Macron’s defeat of the far-right Marine Le Pen in France’s presidential election on May […]

European Union France

FutureSource

May 8, 2017

Data Firms Weigh In On South Korean Presidential Race During Polling Blackout

By Brent M. Eastwood

This blog post is part of a series analyzing the newest forms of data forecasting. The South Korean presidential election scheduled for tomorrow has been fraught with anxiety as voters remain divided over the direction of the country’s political future. The aftermath of a presidential impeachment has placed heightened scrutiny over the presidential race. North […]

Elections Korea

IranSource

May 8, 2017

Hostile State-run Media Challenges Rouhani

By Sirous Amerian

Iran’s incumbent president, Hassan Rouhani, is not only running against 5 people who survived vetting by the Guardian Council. He is also contending with a hostile state-run broadcasting authority.

New Atlanticist

May 7, 2017

President Macron: Finally, Some Good News for the EU

By Julien Touati

Emmanuel Macron’s  large victory is historic by many standards. The newly-elected president of France won the election on his first attempt (like Valery Giscard d’Estaing in 1974 and François Hollande in 2012) but, unlike any other French president since 1958, he did so without any longstanding political experience or the backing of a mainstream party; […]

European Union France