Atlantic Council blogs

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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New Atlanticist

Apr 24, 2017

Macron is Good and Bad News for Brexit Backers

By Reginald Dale

For anxious Britons seeking a good deal in their forthcoming Brexit negotiations with the European Union, the strong probability that Emmanuel Macron will be the next president of France is both good and bad news. The good news is that a Macron victory is the outcome most likely to ensure the EU remains a relatively […]

France United Kingdom

MENASource

Apr 24, 2017

Riyadh & Cairo: A Relationship of Alignment

By Dr. H.A. Hellyer

This past Sunday, Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi visited Riyadh for an official state visit to the Saudi Kingdom. It comes at a time when many are speculating about the future and current state of Saudi-Egyptian relations, particularly after the furor about the status of the islands off the coast of Sinai. But much of […]

North Africa Saudi Arabia

New Atlanticist

Apr 24, 2017

French Election Shows Reports of Western Liberal Order’s Demise Were Exaggerated

By Erwan Lagadec

The dust has yet to settle on the collapse of conventional French politics caused by the results of the first round of the presidential elections on April 23, yet we can already discern the broad features of a Marine Le Pen, or more likely an Emmanuel Macron, foreign policy, especially vis-à-vis the United States and […]

France

SyriaSource

Apr 24, 2017

Bottom Up Development: Recreating a Civilian Syrian Police Force

By Ross Longton

The Syrian revolution has been, at least in part, a consequence of demands for a more transparent rule of law based on trust and legitimacy.

Syria

New Atlanticist

Apr 24, 2017

Emmanuel Macron and the Revenge of the Enlightenment

By Nicholas Dungan

It would be tempting to try to portray the French presidential election as something other than a struggle of globalism versus parochialism, modernity versus nostalgia, tolerance versus intolerance, open-mindedness versus narrow-mindedness, education versus ignorance, ideas versus prejudices. Yet those issues are exactly what the French elections are about. The emergence of the progressive Emmanuel Macron […]

France

UkraineAlert

Apr 24, 2017

Russia’s Desperation for More Soldiers Is Taking It to Dark Places

By Valentyn Badrak, Lada Roslycky, Mykhailo Samus, and Volodymyr Kopchak

Russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine and intensive military operations in Syria have caused a very big problem: a shortage of qualified people to man its occupation forces. This personnel gap, caused by permanent, heavy losses suffered by Russia’s forces, has drastically changed the scale and character of its military missions. At the early stages of […]

Russia Syria
http://www.fmn.dk/eng/TheMinister/Pages/minister-of-defence-claus-hjort-frederiksen.aspx

NATOSource

Apr 24, 2017

Denmark: Russia Hacked Our Defense Ministry for Two Years

By Reuters and Copenhagen Post

From Reuters: Russia has hacked the Danish Defense and gained access to employees’ emails in 2015 and 2016

Cybersecurity Intelligence
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/5440604654/in/photolist-9hLwdw-9hNuLJ-9hKpmZ-9hHrit-9hHqDv-9hKpTt-eULu15-e47mhL-e41FPF-e47hqo-e47i8s-e41ELr-e47kUu-e41GhK-e47k59-e47jUm-e47hS1-e41GKR-e47hxW-e47mPN-e47jAC-e41Jw8-rWKt8s-rWHUgf-rWJfw5-cJjFP-e47hHh-rWKnwC-9VQfNH-g25GLQ-5nrmkz-g1XPzf-g25NZH-c8zKr7-9hgBjx-5nrmkt-4SQYDD-9mEwWW-g25Md6-aWaU2n-9nkVU5-c8cbaC-rpJw2x-d5X6uS-emNEdj-9hNwso-9C4Xts-9yDPEb-r6wRV8-g25LFz

NATOSource

Apr 24, 2017

Trump Believes ‘Nobody Ever Criticized NATO’

By Donald Trump, AP

TRUMP: They had a quote from me that NATO’s obsolete. But they didn’t say why it was obsolete.

Germany Italy

UkraineAlert

Apr 24, 2017

More Solidarity with Ukraine Needed, Say Speakers at the Kyiv Security Forum

By Ariel Cohen

The Tenth Kyiv Security Forum—an important foreign affairs conference conducted annually by the Open Ukraine Foundation—occurred on April 6-7. Headed by Ukraine’s former Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and his wife Terezia, the conference underscored an important message: the need for the West to stay engaged and maintain security in the borderlands between Russia and Central […]

Belarus Moldova
Zurich Geopolitical Email Banner

FutureSource

Apr 24, 2017

Our World Transformed: A New Futures Study on Geopolitical Risks

By Mathew Burrows

Geopolitical volatility is the new normal and is not going away anytime soon. While the news features the rise of protectionism everyday, an energy crisis due to a conflict in the Middle East or the spread of water and food insecurity, could equally disrupt the world. Should any of these situations deteriorate further, the impacts […]