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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

Apr 15, 2015

Off the Radar: Europe’s Retreat from a Democratic Push in the Middle East

By Amy Hawthorne and Elissa Miller

As the Middle East and North Africa region grows more unstable, Europe has turned inward, under-using its ability—and even understating the need—to project democratic values in the region.

European Union International Organizations

New Atlanticist

Apr 15, 2015

Falling Oil Prices Hit ISIS Where it Hurts

By Ashish Kumar Sen

Terrorist group’s plans to expand to South Asia seen hamstrung by its depleted finances A sharp drop in world oil prices and the presence of other terrorist groups will make it hard for the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) to establish a foothold in South Asia, said Omar Hamid, head of Asia Pacific […]

Afghanistan India

New Atlanticist

Apr 15, 2015

Making the Case for a Syrian National Stabilization Force

By Larry Luxner

Analysts propose US-led effort to end the war in Syria Nothing less than a national stabilization force consisting of fifty thousand troops and costing billions of dollars will stop the continuing bloodshed in Syria, three security analysts said April 14 at the Atlantic Council. The panel coincided with the release of a report, Setting the […]

Syria

MENASource

Apr 15, 2015

Top News: UN Security Council Imposes Arms Embargo on Houthis

By MENASource

After weeks of closed-door negotiations between diplomats from Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members and Russia, the Security Council on Tuesday imposed an arms embargo on Houthi fighters and left it to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to negotiate the delivery of humanitarian aid to Yemenis who have endured nearly three weeks of Saudi-led airstrikes.

MENASource

Apr 15, 2015

Top News: Police Allowed to Deport Gay Foreigners, Rules Egypt Court

By EgyptSource

Egypt’s Administrative Court issued a ruling on Tuesday allowing the Interior Ministry to deport homosexual foreigners and deny them entry into the country. The decision follows a court ruling which upheld an interior ministry decision to ban a Libyan student accused of being a homosexual from entering the country. 

SyriaSource

Apr 15, 2015

Syria Needs Train-and-Equip on Steroids: Ambassador Frederic C. Hof’s Remarks

By Frederic C. Hof

Ambassador Frederic Hof, Senior Fellow with Atlantic Council, Bassma Kodmani, Executive Director of the Arab Reform Initiative and Associate Professor at Paris University, and Jeffrey White, Defense Fellow and the Washington Institute for Near East Policy presented their report, Setting the Stage for Peace in Syria: The Case for a Syrian National Stabilization Force, on […]

Syria

MENASource

Apr 15, 2015

EconSource: Reinforcements Sent to Battle ISIS at Iraq’s Largest Oil Refinery

By EconSource

Hundreds of additional Iraqi troops are being sent to reinforce forces working to fight off an attempt by the Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL) to overrun Iraq’s largest oil refinery.

New Atlanticist

Apr 15, 2015

In a New Bipolar Energy Order, America Must Assert Itself in the Arctic

By Vicente López-Ibor Mayor

This month’s US chairmanship of the Arctic Council has come at a particularly geopolitically divisive time. Previous years have seen increasing competition between nations to exploit the Arctic’s vast untapped energy reserves. It is a competition the US government has been less active in due to environmental concerns. More important and less widely acknowledged is […]

Energy & Environment Energy Markets & Governance

MENASource

Apr 15, 2015

Tunisia’s Security Sector and Countering Violent Extremism; Part 1: Controlling the Narrative

By Fadil Aliriza

In the wake of the hostage shootout at Bardo Museum in Tunis that left more than twenty dead, US Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently announced that US military aid to Tunisia would triple to combat “those who threaten the freedom and safety of the nation.”

North Africa

New Atlanticist

Apr 14, 2015

US-Cuba Forecast: Sunny?

By Ashish Kumar Sen

Cuba’s removal from terrorism list opens the door to full diplomatic relations says Atlantic Council’s Schechter US President Barack Obama’s decision to take Cuba off the list of state sponsors of terrorism is a long-awaited move that “opens the door” to the re-establishment of relations with Cuba, said Peter Schechter, the Atlantic Council’s lead Latin […]

Cuba