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.
View all
of our blogs
Subscribe to our
newsletters

Latest from across our blogs

New Atlanticist

Jun 7, 2016

Tunisia Seen Key to Regional Prosperity

By Mitch Hulse

Tunisia’s democratic transition and economic growth can lead to security and stability in a volatile neighborhood, according to a US government official. “A successful Tunisia benefits not only the Tunisian people but enhances security, prosperity, and influence in the region as well,” Paige Alexander, assistant administrator for the Bureau for the Middle East at the […]

North Africa

New Atlanticist

Jun 7, 2016

The Foreign Policy of New Energy 

By Thomas Cunningham

The geopolitics of oil and gas are on one hand; climate change negotiations are on the other.  The next set of energy-foreign policy challenges will be somewhere in the middle. The global energy landscape is characterized by constant change, and every energy issue has foreign policy implications. Therefore, the speed and effectiveness with which an […]

Energy & Environment Energy Markets & Governance

UkraineAlert

Jun 7, 2016

Civil Society Gives Ukraine’s New Prime Minister Positive Marks

By Josh Cohen

During almost eight weeks in office, Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groisman has inspired largely negative reactions from Western analysts. Noting Groisman’s close relationship with President Petro Poroshenko, observers fret the young prime minister will merely function as a yes-man. His appointment was variously described as “same old, same old,” “not the best choice,” and an […]

Ukraine

MENASource

Jun 7, 2016

New Pressure on Saudi Arabia is Changing the Logic of the Yemeni Peace Talks

By Jillian Schwedler

Two developments in Yemen over the past week illustrate both promise and concern for Yemen’s peace talks. Escalated fighting in the Marib and Shabwa provinces took more than a hundred lives, but the latest prisoner swap of pro-Hadi and Houthi fighters indicates that the peace process has not collapsed. With increased US pressure on Saudi […]

Saudi Arabia Yemen

UkraineAlert

Jun 7, 2016

The Savchenko Effect

By Brian Mefford

The release from a Russian prison and return of helicopter pilot Nadiya Savchenko to Ukraine has ignited speculation about her future political plans. Elected as the first candidate on the party list of Yulia Tymoshenko’s bloc in the October 2014 parliamentary elections, Savchenko immediately entered politics upon her return to Ukraine. Savchenko’s initial speeches focused […]

Ukraine

MENASource

Jun 7, 2016

Who is Persecuting the Copts?

By Alaa Al Aswany

In the 1930s, the Ministry of the Interior under the Wafd administration announced a competition for positions in the ministry. When the results were not made public, the entrants complained to the Prime Minister, Mustafa Nahhas who summoned the official in charge of the competition to ask him the reason for this. The official whispered […]

North Africa

UkraineAlert

Jun 7, 2016

Ukraine Defies Anti-Semitic Stereotypes

By Alina Polyakova

Confronting a difficult history is no easy matter, particularly in Ukraine—a country caught between murderous regimes throughout the twentieth century. In his book Bloodlands, Yale historian Timothy Snyder places Ukraine at the center of a region where more than 14 million “non-combatants” were ruthlessly killed by the competing geopolitical goals of Adolf Hitler and Joseph […]

Ukraine

SyriaSource

Jun 7, 2016

#5YearsWeFled: The Beginning of a New Journey

By Ayman Jalwan

This series is from interviews with the lawyer Ayman Jalwan. It highlights the difficult choice that Syrians face—dying in the war zone that Syria had become, or flee the land he loved. Last year, he and his wife said goodbye to their families and joined the wave of citizens leaving the country. First they had […]

Syria

UkraineAlert

Jun 6, 2016

Ten Reasons to Invest in Ukraine

By Anders Åslund

Those who have invested in Ukraine so far have not been very happy with their return. At present, Ukraine’s gross domestic product is about $85 billion, approximately one-eighth of Poland’s GDP. The return on investment has been in proportion to that. Will things change? You can never be sure, but like before, Ukraine holds great […]

Ukraine

SyriaSource

Jun 6, 2016

Shooting Blanks

By Frederic C. Hof

The June 1, 2016 deadline for Syria’s Assad regime to lift impediments to United Nations emergency food and medical deliveries to desperate Syrians has come and gone. The promise of air-delivered aid to circumvent regime ground sieges has not materialized. Russian bombing attacks on Syrian residential neighborhoods in support of an Assad regime effort to […]

Syria