Atlantic Council blogs

Defining US Strategy for a World in Transition

By Larry Luxner

With war tearing apart eastern Ukraine, ethnic strife claiming lives from Libya to Yemen, and record numbers of African refugees drowning in the Mediterranean, it’s easy to conclude that the once-familiar world order is falling apart. Whether or not that’s true, few scholars would dispute that the United States is no longer in charge as […]

Top News: United States Concerned Iranian Ships May Carry Arms to Yemen

By MENASource

The United States is concerned a group of Iranian cargo ships may be carrying advanced weapons to Yemen, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Wednesday, as he called on Iran to avoid “fanning the flames” of the conflict with arms deliveries.

Top News: No Parliamentary Elections Before Ramadan, Says Minister

By EgyptSource

Transitional Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ibrahim al-Heneidy announced that the parliamentary elections will not be held until after Ramadan, due to technical and security issues. “We are ‎back to square one again and I do not expect the poll to ‎be held anytime soon ahead of the holy Islamic month of ‎Ramadan [which is […]

EconSource: ISIS Fills Coffers With Iraqi Government Cash, Sells Oil to Assad Regime

By EconSource

The Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL) is skimming money from its enemies in both Damascus and Baghdad, making millions out of selling oil to the Assad regime and taxing Iraqi government money sent to civil servants in its fiefdom, according to a new BBC documentary.

Tales of Blasphemy in Egypt

By Ishak Ibrahim

Dr. Mahmoud Dahroug, a man of over sixty, lives in a constant state of suspense, fearing he will be arrested to serve a five-year prison sentence issued against him late last year for being a Shiite. Most of his acquaintances have distanced themselves from him, and Dahroug spends his time reading and surfing the Internet […]

Gazprom, Just Follow the Law

By Richard L. Morningstar

European energy security has received a great deal of attention on both sides of the Atlantic since Russia suspended gas shipments through Ukraine in the winter of 2009. In response to Ukraine’s experience, the European Union has taken steps to develop interconnectors and new liquefied natural gas facilities that would allow gas to flow to […]

Russia’s Lone Warrior Stands Up to Putin

By Irena Chalupa

Ilya Ponomarev has not slept in the same bed for more than a few nights since August 2014. The two-term legislator from Russia’s third-largest city Novosibirsk has been living in exile since Russia’s lower house of parliament, the Duma, stripped him of parliamentary immunity.

Letter: Experts Worry that “Decommunization” Laws Curtail Free Speech

By Atlantic Council

Editor’s note: It’s unfortunate that in a time of critical issues that legislation that disenfranchises certain, if often extreme, points of view looks like it’s going to become law. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is expected to sign four laws on “decommunization,” recently passed by Ukraine’s parliament, which enact an official version of the nation’s 20th century […]

The Kurdish Factor in Turkey’s Election

Things are not looking good for Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) ahead of the parliamentary elections in June. The AKP may lose seats while the Kurdish political party, the People’s Democratic Party (HDP), and far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) are expected to gain seats, according to recent polls.

US Senators Call for Safe Zones in Syria

By Andrea Taylor

After four years of conflict in Syria – with a humanitarian atrocity that emerged from peaceful protests on the streets of Damascus and Aleppo – the horror of the statistics may have surpassed fully comprehendible proportions; many Americans seem to have turned a blind eye to this atrocity, unable to see a way past the […]