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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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NATO Missile Defense complex in Romania, Sept. 5, 2013

NATOSource

May 20, 2016

US, France Differ Over Readiness of NATO Missile-Defense Shield

By Julian E. Barnes and Robert Wall, Wall Street Journal

French officials said they are withholding their approval for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to take control of the U.S.-built European missile-defense system

Central Europe France

SyriaSource

May 20, 2016

Political Development as a Response to the Conflict in Syria

By Sarah Sheikh Ali

Of the five aspects of development, projects in Syria lack focus on political development, favoring projects of a social, economic, cultural, or environmental nature. In Syria, the spread of selective economic and social services projects without any political development component hinders development work from supporting the resolution of the larger conflict in Syria and sub-conflicts. […]

Syria

MENASource

May 20, 2016

A Swift Response to Egypt’s April 25 Dissent

By Khaled Dawoud

Egypt’s opposition was dealt a heavy blow early this week after several courts sentenced 152 protesters, arrested on April 25, to two to five years in prison. They were detained for demonstrating against the maritime border agreement signed by Egypt and Saudi Arabia in early April, ceding Cairo’s sovereignty over the two strategic Red Sea […]

North Africa

SyriaSource

May 19, 2016

The Latest from Vienna

By Frederic C. Hof

The International Syrian Support Group (ISSG) met in Vienna on May 17, 2016 and issued a statement summing up its work. The language of the statement on civilian protection and humanitarian access is positive and assertive. Russia and Iran have agreed on paper to things of potentially great significance in terms of reducing violence and […]

Syria

New Atlanticist

May 19, 2016

A ‘Shortsighted’ US Embrace

By Ashish Kumar Sen

For Obama administration, anti-terrorism agenda comes at the cost of human rights when picking partners, says Human Rights Watch’s Kenneth Roth The Obama administration has, in the conduct of its war against terrorism, embraced a “shortsighted” approach that sets aside a democratic agenda and overlooks human rights abuses committed by some of its closest allies […]

North Africa Saudi Arabia

New Atlanticist

May 19, 2016

America’s Friend in North Africa Deserves Better

By J. Peter Pham

It is written in the Book of Proverbs that “Faithful are the wounds of a friend.” In other words, a true friend will tell another unpleasant truths, conveying things the other may not want to hear, but doing so for the sake of the other’s own good, which is valued more than even the friendship […]

Morocco

MENASource

May 19, 2016

The Fragility of Tunisia’s Success Story

By Karim Mezran

Tunisia has been considered by most observers as the success story of the Arab Spring. If compared with the disastrous situations in Libya, Yemen, and Syria, and with the increasingly complicated situation in Egypt, Tunisia’s success seems an apparent truth.

North Africa
Russian President Vladimir Putin, Nov. 26, 2015

NATOSource

May 19, 2016

Vladimir Putin’s Dangerous Obsession

By Editorial Board, New York Times

Syria is just one arena where Mr. Putin’s obsessive quest to make Russia great again has fueled instability and reawakened political suspicions and animosities that faded after the fall of the Soviet Union.

NATO Russia

UkraineAlert

May 19, 2016

Reconciliation Will Be Ukraine’s Next Serious Battle with Russia

By Volodymyr Turchynovskyy

Until very recently, Ukrainians predominantly spoke a language of identities, differentiating between people from western Ukraine and people from the eastern part of the country, Ukrainian speaking versus Russian speaking, Greek Catholics versus Orthodox. But what was powerfully witnessed during the Euromaidan was the emergence of a new modality of communication that we might call […]

Russia Ukraine

AfricaSource

May 19, 2016

America’s Friend in North Africa Deserves Better

By J. Peter Pham

It is written in the Book of Proverbs that “Faithful are the wounds of a friend.” In other words, a true friend will tell another unpleasant truths, conveying things the other may not want to hear, but doing so for the sake of the other’s own good, which is valued more than even the friendship itself. However, […]

Morocco