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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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New Atlanticist

Sep 10, 2013

Smart Wars Don’t Need Selling

By James Joyner

President Obama is pulling out all stops in a thus-far failing bid to convince the American people and their representatives in Congress to back military action in Syria.

Syria

New Atlanticist

Sep 9, 2013

Eye on Syria: Syria Accepts Russian Plan

News Obama Interviews on Syria: Three-Minute Summary, Washington Post ABC CBS Evening News CNN Fox News NBC Nightly News PBS Newshour Charlie Rose Interview with Bashar al-Assad, PBS Syria Accepts Russian Proposal on Weapons; France to Bring Resolution to Security Council, Washington PostAn unexpected Russian proposal for Syria to avert a US military strike by […]

Syria
NATO ships arrive at Batumi

NATOSource

Sep 9, 2013

NATO Ships Visit Batumi, Georgia

By Allied Command Operations

Friday, 6 September 2013, three NATO ships assigned to Standing NATO Mine Counter-Measures Group TWO (SNMCMG2) arrived in Batumi for a scheduled visit to the Black Sea port.

NATO Security & Defense
NATO Summit in Chicago

NATOSource

Sep 9, 2013

The West is Accelerating its Strategic Decline

By François Heisbourg, Financial Times

[T]he west was inevitably going to lose some of its ability to set the global agenda and to conduct foreign military operations. This process has been accelerated by the west’s economic slowdown since 2007.

International Organizations Libya
LTC POL AF Paul does his F-16 walkaround inspection before flight in Exercise Brilliant Arrow

NATOSource

Sep 9, 2013

NATO Concludes Air Training Exercise, Brilliant Arrow

By Allied Command Operations

One of the largest NATO air training events of the year, Exercise Brilliant Arrow, took place at Orland Airbase, in Norway from 25 Aug to 5 Sep 2013.

France Germany

MENASource

Sep 9, 2013

Kerry’s “Hypothetical” in Syria: Checking Congress?

By Anthony Elghossain

Congress needs to check itself. As it considers the use of force in Syria, Congress will enjoy considerable control over the authorizing resolution’s language. To begin with, under the US Constitution, Congress has the power to declare war, to raise and maintain armed forces, to control the purse.

Syria

New Atlanticist

Sep 9, 2013

US Congress Questions Rationale for Striking Syria

By Barbara Slavin

President Barack Obama’s abrupt decision to seek congressional authorization for striking Syria has had at least one salutary effect so far: it has given Americans and their elected representatives a chance to express serious reservations about the limits of U.S. military intervention in shaping troubled foreign societies.

Syria

MENASource

Sep 9, 2013

Top News: “Expect everything” if US strikes Syria, Assad says

By MENASource

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad warned Washington on Monday to brace for retaliation if US forces attacked his war-torn country, as he denied using chemical weapons against his people.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, May 8, 2013

NATOSource

Sep 9, 2013

Failure to Launch Military Strike Against Syria will be Taken as a Sign of Western Weakness, says NATO SecGen

By James Tapsfield, Independent

The head of Nato has warned that failure to launch military reprisals against Syria will be taken as a sign of Western “weakness”, as Barack Obama struggles to get congressional support for action.

NATO Security & Defense

MENASource

Sep 9, 2013

Top News: Constitution Panel Elects Moussa Head, Sets 75 Percent Vote to Approve Articles

By EgyptSource

Former liberal-leaning presidential candidate Amr Moussa has been elected ٍas head of Egypt’s fifty-strong constitution-drafting committee.The committee agreed on Monday that controversial articles will be settled by a 75 percent vote if their initial referral to a specialized ‘consensus committee’ fails to garner the agreement of all members. 

North Africa