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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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SouthAsiaSource

Sep 26, 2014

This Week in South Asia: September 20-26

By Elijah Logsdon and Refayat Haque

Commentary from the South Asia Center on the most relevant news from the region, and suggested “must-read” analyses from the week. AfghanistanAfter extensive campaigning, two rounds of voting, and an internationally-supervised recount, Afghanistan’s protracted presidential election finally ended on Saturday in an anticlimactic fifteen-minute ceremony.  Both candidates, Dr. Ashraf Ghani and Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, met […]

Afghanistan India
Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, September 4, 2014

NATOSource

Sep 26, 2014

Outgoing NATO Chief: Russia Considers Us an Adversary

By David Jackson, USA TODAY

The retiring secretary general of NATO says he is leaving behind a more efficient fighting organization that will have to deal with an increasingly aggressive Russia.

International Organizations NATO

MENASource

Sep 26, 2014

Egypt Raises Stakes for Dissent with Life Sentence

By Sarah El Sirgany

Days after announcing his backing for the US-led regional alliance to fight the Islamic State of Syria and al-Sham (ISIS), President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi issued a legislative amendment that extends the penalty for receiving funds to commit acts that ‘harm national interests’ and ‘disturb public peace’ to a life sentence. The September 22 amendment is […]

North Africa
SACEUR Gen. Philip Breedlove, July 1, 2014

NATOSource

Sep 26, 2014

SACEUR Breedlove: NATO Allies Need More Precision Weapons

By Marcus Weisgerber, Defense News

NATO alliance members still do not have enough guided bombs and missiles to conduct a long-lasting battle, the alliance’s top general said Monday.

Libya NATO

New Atlanticist

Sep 26, 2014

Is This Obama’s Golden Foreign Policy Moment?

By Barry Pavel

Four Key Lessons for the Rest of the Obama Term President Barack Obama’s tough speech before the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday struck a very different tone from his past foreign policy speeches, which often highlighted the drawdown of US military forces from overseas conflicts. Instead, this time, and before a global audience, President […]

Middle East Syria

MENASource

Sep 26, 2014

President Sisi Goes to the United Nations

By Amy Hawthorne and Tarek Radwan

To cheers of “long live Egypt” from the audience and with angry protestors safely kept at bay on the street outside, Egypt’s new President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi delivered his inaugural speech on the world stage on Wednesday at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).  Sisi’s remarks aimed to persuade the international community of his legitimacy, […]

North Africa

MENASource

Sep 26, 2014

Top News: Sisi and Obama Discuss ISIS, Libya Crisis, Detained Journalists

By EgyptSource

Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi met with US President Barack Obama for the first time on Thursday, discussing a range of issues including ISIS, Libya, and the detention of journalists in Egypt.

MENASource

Sep 26, 2014

Iconoclasm and the Islamic State: Razing Shrines to Draw New Borders

By Matthew Hall

A Q&A with Dr. James Noyes, Part I of III In his address at the UN General Assembly, President Barack Obama condemned the extremist ideology of the Islamic State (also known as ISIS), saying that “the future belongs to those who build—not those who destroy.” Ironically, this is precisely the long-term threat: more than simply a […]

Trade in Action

Sep 25, 2014

Get the latest on TTIP before next week’s 7th negotiating Round

Who’s Who & Who’s New? Now that incoming European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has announced his appointees for the next Commission, TTIP Action will introduce several of the new commissioners, their portfolios, and their role in the European Union over the course of the next several weeks. Today’s edition introduces Pierre Moscovici, the designated Commissioner […]

Economy & Business Trade and tariffs
A Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker and an RAF Typhoon fighter jet, June 17, 2014

NATOSource

Sep 25, 2014

Russian Air Incursions Rattle Baltic States

By Richard Milne, Sam Jones, and Kathrin Hille, Financial Times

The Baltic countries are registering a dramatic increase in Russian military provocations, rattling nerves in a region which fears it could be the next frontier after Ukraine in Moscow’s quest at asserting its regional power.

NATO Northern Europe