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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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UkraineAlert

Aug 13, 2015

Russia’s Occupation of Ukraine Still Top Threat to Global Security

By Stephen Blank

Recent articles in the US media suggest that the Pentagon is “rebalancing” its forces towards Europe to meet the Russian challenge. At the same time, NATO plans to halve the number of air patrols over the Baltic. Supposedly the Russian threat to Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania has ebbed, and governments are finally stepping up to […]

NATO Russia

New Atlanticist

Aug 12, 2015

Al Qaeda Affiliate Gets Out of the Way in Syria

By Ashish Kumar Sen

Nusra Front’s decision to leave frontlines against ISIS facilitates a US-Turkish agreement on a safe zone in northern Syria, says Atlantic Council’s Faysal Itani By deciding to quit frontline positions against the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) in northern Syria, al Qaeda-affiliate Nusra Front has made a US-Turkish agreement on establishing a safe […]

National Security Security & Defense

MENASource

Aug 12, 2015

Top News: Drone Strike Kills Five Al-Qaeda Militants in Yemen

By MENASource

A suspected US drone strike killed five al-Qaeda fighters in eastern Yemen on Wednesday, officials said, as Islamist militant groups claimed a string of attacks in the war-torn country. The officials said the bombs hit the men in their car while they were traveling on a coast road east of the Arabian Sea port of […]

MENASource

Aug 12, 2015

Top News: Egypt ISIS Affiliate Purportedly Beheads Croatian Citizen

By EgyptSource

Islamic State’s (ISIS or ISIL) affiliate in Egypt, Sinai State, formerly known as Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, has circulated an image online that purports to show the beheaded body of a Croatian man abducted in Egypt in July.

MENASource

Aug 12, 2015

EconSource: Sisi Establishes Economic Zone Around Egypt’s Suez Canal

By EconSource

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi issued a decree establishing an economic zone around the Suez Canal, the country’s state news agency said on Tuesday.

MENASource

Aug 12, 2015

Libya: Half an Agreement is Better than No Agreement

By Karim Mezran

The situation in Libya has reached a point of utmost gravity. The suffering of the population and the instability resulting from the actions of rival militias, terrorist groups, and criminal organizations have rendered the situation unsustainable.

Libya

UkraineAlert

Aug 12, 2015

How Mr. X Outsmarted Mr. Kvit: The Lopsided Progress of Ukraine’s Education Reforms

By Kateryna Smagliy

Let me tell you the story of Mr. X—a student whom I had never seen in class, and who had not shown up for any of his final exams. “Oh, do not worry,” his fellow students reassured me, “it has been like this year in year out.” I could have easily forgotten this trivial episode […]

Russia Ukraine

UkraineAlert

Aug 12, 2015

Ukraine Crisis Is Not Only About Ukraine

By Andreas Umland

The Ukraine crisis is not only about Ukraine. Far more urgent for humanity as a whole are the commitments made by Russia and other UN Security Council members with regard to Ukraine’s accession to the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Treaty (NPT) following the Soviet Union’s collapse. The NPT aims to curtail the spread of weapons […]

Russia Ukraine

New Atlanticist

Aug 11, 2015

Afghan Peace Process: DOA?

By Ashish Kumar Sen

Pakistan can do more on terrorist groups, says Atlantic Council Senior Fellow James B. Cunningham Afghan President Ashraf Ghani is right, Pakistan can do more to disrupt terrorist networks that plan and carry out attacks across the border in Afghanistan, says Atlantic Council Senior Fellow James B. Cunningham. A broad spectrum of terrorist and criminal […]

Afghanistan Pakistan

New Atlanticist

Aug 11, 2015

Is Turkey’s War on PKK Hurting US Alliance Against ISIS?

By Ashish Kumar Sen

Atlantic Council’s Francis J. Ricciardone says Turkey is making a distinction between Kurdish groups in Iraq and Syria The US-Turkish alliance against the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) complicates but need not impede, and might even ease,  the United States’ military partnership with a Syria-based Kurdish group that has been instrumental in the […]

National Security Security & Defense