Atlantic Council blogs

TTIP&TRADE in Action – October 5, 2016

By Global Business & Economics Program

The Atlantic Council is hosting EU Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs Pierre Moscovici, and a panel of esteemed experts featuring Mr. Carlos Costa, Governor of the Central Bank of Portugal; Mr. Bart Oosterveld, Managing Director of Moody’s Investor Service; and  Dr. Paul Sheard, Chief Economist of SP Global, tomorrow, October 6 as part of the […]

Colombia’s Peace Plebiscite: A Divided Nation

By Andrea Saldarriaga Jiménez

On October 2, Colombians rejected the peace agreement brokered between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The “no” vote won the plebiscite by less than 0.5 percent of the vote with only 37 percent of voter participation. The world is shocked and Colombians astonished. Polls leading up to the plebiscite had […]

Kerry: US Will Always Honor its Defense Guarantee to NATO Allies

By John Kerry, Department of State

Let me underscore: The United States of America will support its friends and its allies on both sides of the channel as you work through the tough issues ahead, but we will not be shy about where our interests lie.

Stop Mistaking Russia for Europe

By Andrew Kornbluth

Like a coin inserted into a broken candy machine, the most recent attempt by the United States to broker a ceasefire with the Russians in Syria has vanished with nothing to show for it. Instead, in a calculated gesture of contempt, Russian and Syrian government forces annihilated a humanitarian convoy before beginning an unprecedented round-the-clock […]

Plebiscite Leaves Colombia’s Peace Process in Limbo

By Ashish Kumar Sen

On October 2, Colombian voters rejected a peace accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas. This was a “surprising” outcome of a plebiscite that has thrown into question the prospects for peace in the country, according to Atlantic Council analysts. “One could argue that it both complicates and eases this problem,” said […]

Kremlin Panics after Dutch Report, and It Should

By Alexei Sobchenko

The report of the Dutch-led investigation team on the shoot down of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine offered a momentary glimpse into the true nature of the proverbial riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. Instead of denying any Russian involvement in the death of 298 people in July 2014, a number […]

What Egypt’s Assassination Attempts Say about its Islamist Insurgency

By Mokhtar Awad

An attempted assassination at the end of September on Egypt’s assistant prosecutor general, Zakaria Abdul Aziz, highlights the capability and determination of militant Islamist actors in the Egyptian mainland to wage terror in the mainland.

Egypt’s Currency Catch 22

By H.A. Hellyer

The board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is due to meet sometime in the next two to three weeks, at which point it will formally sign off on the deal for Egypt. It’s a deal wrought with challenges, but is likely to go forward anyway. Cairo insists that the IMF deal ties in well […]

Georgia at a Crossroad

By Tedo Japaridze

Georgia today is a very different country from what it was four years ago. Owing in large part to its strong regional relationships and geographic location, Georgia has enhanced its partnerships with Europe and the United States, and has also become increasingly relevant to East Asia, largely through trade. It is now time to reflect […]

Gene Editing: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

In the 2016 Worldwide Threat Assessment of the US National Intelligence Community, Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper noted: “given the broad distribution, low cost, and accelerated pace of development of this dual-use technology [genome editing], its deliberate or unintentional misuse might lead to far-reaching economic and national security implications.” The CRISPR-Cas9 (clustered regularly […]