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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

Oct 8, 2015

The Incirlik Expansion and the US-Turkish Strategy to Fight ISIS

By Aaron Stein

After nine months of negotiations, the United States and Turkey reached an agreement to open Turkish airbases for strike missions against the Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL) in late July 2015. Since then, the United States has stationed six F-16s at Incirlik and search and rescue aircraft at Diyarbakir airbase.

Syria Turkey
Soldier in the French Foreign Legion , Oct. 4, 2010

NATOSource

Oct 8, 2015

Letter from Strasbourg (Part Three): A French Defense Update

By Leo Michel

Insights from the 13th annual “summer defense college,” in Strasbourg.

France NATO
Soldiers Disembarking from a Chinook Helicopter, Feb. 12, 2013

NATOSource

Oct 8, 2015

British Troops to Bolster Baltic Buffer Against Russia

By Financial Times and Guardian

From Sam Jones, Financial Times:  Britain is to join Germany and the US in committing to long-term troop deployments in the Baltic states to deter Russian aggression and shore up Nato’s eastern borders.

Germany NATO

New Atlanticist

Oct 8, 2015

A Three-Pronged Strategy to Deal with Putin

By Ashish Kumar Sen

Atlantic Council’s James L. Jones, Jr. recommends a toolkit that includes economic, political, and security components The United States must develop a three-pronged approach that includes economic, political, and security components to deter Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “retrograde ambitions in favor of the peaceful and progressive order the transatlantic community and the world had envisioned […]

Energy & Environment Energy Markets & Governance

MENASource

Oct 8, 2015

Top News: US Senate Democrats Hold Up Arms Sales to Saudi Arabia

By MENASource

A US Senate panel voted Wednesday to delay weapons sales to Saudi Arabia over concerns regarding the kingdom’s ongoing air war in Yemen. Congress was notified on August 19 of the Obama administration’s intent to provide Riyadh with thousands of precision-guided munitions.

MENASource

Oct 8, 2015

Top News: Sisi Tells Putin Regional ‘Political’ Settlement is Urgently Needed

By EgyptSource

 Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi discussed over the phone the latest security and political developments in the Middle East with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin late Wednesday, according to state-affiliated MENA news agency.

MENASource

Oct 8, 2015

EconSource: Saudi Arabia said to order spending curbs amid oil price slump

By EconSource

Saudi Arabia is ordering a series of cost cutting measures as a global slide in oil prices weighs on the kingdom’s budget. The Saudi Finance Ministry told government departments not to contract any new projects and to freeze appointments and promotions in the fourth quarter of 2015, sources said.

New Atlanticist

Oct 7, 2015

Berlin Wall to be Displayed at the State Department

By Ashish Kumar Sen

Swapping stories about their experiences in an East Germany that was shut off from the West by the Berlin Wall, US Secretary of State John Kerry and German President Joachim Gauck on October 7 commemorated the arrival of a section of the barrier at the State Department in Washington. The Atlantic Council provided this segment […]

UkraineAlert

Oct 7, 2015

The Forgotten War: A View From Ukraine’s Frontlines

By Ihor Kozak

For a brief moment, it felt like déjà vu. As an officer with the Canadian Armed Forces, I visited several hot spots, witnessing my share of misery and destruction. Now I am in the Donbas, the war-torn region of eastern Ukraine. Since its independence in 1991, Ukraine has struggled to shed its Soviet colonial past […]

Russia Ukraine

New Atlanticist

Oct 7, 2015

The Rise of the Left in Britain

By Claire Yorke

The past six months have been highly eventful for British politics. After the elections in May, which saw the re-election of the Conservatives and the disastrous defeats of the Labour and Liberal Democrat parties, the country encountered yet another political surprise in September with the election of the Labour party’s new leader: Jeremy Corbyn. A […]

United Kingdom