Atlantic Council blogs

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.
View all
of our blogs
Subscribe to our
newsletters

Latest from across our blogs

MENASource

Feb 23, 2015

PHOTO ESSAY: Christians of Minya between Agony and Happiness

By Jonathan Rashad

Between agony and happiness, the village of al-Aour in the Egyptian governorate of Minya lost thirteen of its residents to a brutal death. Those thirteen were among the twenty Egyptian Christians recently beheaded by the Islamic State (ISIS) in Libya.

North Africa
Russia's Zapad strategic military exercises, Sept. 26, 2013

NATOSource

Feb 23, 2015

The NATO-Russia Exercise Gap

By Ian J. Brzezinski and Nicholas Varangis, Atlantic Council

Exercises are used by defense establishments to test their readiness, deployability, and logistical and combat proficiency.

NATO Russia

Europe After The Vote

Feb 23, 2015

Details of Greece’s Reforms Plan are Key, Says Montanino

By Ashish Kumar Sen

Atlantic Council analyst says creditors want to know how Athens will fight corruption Greece’s creditors will scrutinize its reforms plan, which is aimed at securing a financial lifeline, for details on how the new government in Athens will tackle endemic problems such as corruption and tax evasion, according to Atlantic Council analyst Andrea Montanino. Greece […]

European Union Germany

MENASource

Feb 23, 2015

Top News: Alaa Abdel Fattah Sentenced to Five Years; Over 3,000 Egyptians Return from Libya

By EgyptSource

The Cairo Criminal Court sentenced activist Alaa Abdel Fattah and his co-defendant Ahmed Abdel Rahman to five years of maximum security prison on Monday, in their retrial on charges of illegal assembly.

MENASource

Feb 23, 2015

Top News: UN Investigators May Release Syria War Criminal Lists

By MENASource

UN war crimes investigators said Friday that they were prepared to publish secret lists of alleged war criminals in Syria to help stem an “exponential rise” in human rights violations in the country.

MENASource

Feb 23, 2015

Syria: Forget About Arming the Opposition?

By Frederic C. Hof

My friend and former governmental colleague Robert Ford was recently depicted in a newspaper article as having done a U-turn on the question of arming Syrian nationalists currently resisting both the Assad regime and the Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL). Ambassador Ford will, I suspect, take pen to paper soon to present a more nuanced […]

Syria

New Atlanticist

Feb 20, 2015

Under Pressure, Venezuela’s Maduro Lashes Out at Critics

By Ashish Kumar Sen

The arrest of the Mayor of Caracas is an attempt by President Nicolás Maduro’s crumbling government, which is under immense political and economic pressure to demonstrate authority, to consolidate the hardline base of the governing United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), according to Atlantic Council analysts. Venezuela, which has suffered political turmoil since protests broke out […]

Cuba Venezuela
Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, Feb. 22, 2013

NATOSource

Feb 20, 2015

Leon Panetta: You Have To Deal with the Russians from Strength

By Spiegel

Excerpts from interview of former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta by Markus Feldenkirchen and Holger Stark of Spiegel, February 14, 2015.

Germany Intelligence
Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, Sept. 25, 2013

NATOSource

Feb 20, 2015

New Secretary of Defense Highlights US Alliance Power

By Ashton Carter, Department of Defense

We are not only the finest fighting force in the world, but I think we’re the brightest beacon of hope as a country in the world.

United States and Canada

MENASource

Feb 20, 2015

Before We Reach an Oil-for-Food Moment in Libya

By Hafed Al-Ghwell

Almost four years to the day of the start of Libya’s civil war, February 17, 2011, the country remains in turmoil. The failure of Libya’s “transition” into some sort of stable democracy along with the ensuing civil war has not only qualified it as the worst in the Arab Spring so far, but also as […]

Libya