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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

Sep 28, 2012

Moderates and Liberals Double-down on the Constitution

By Tarek Radwan

After President Mohammed Morsi took the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) out of the political equation, he and the Islamist political forces assumed the dominant role in Egyptian politics. They also became the next logical target for secular revolutionaries, leftists and liberals alike. Given that Egypt’s transitional timetable and upcoming parliamentary elections – […]

New Atlanticist

Sep 28, 2012

Smart Defense Not a Trojan Horse

By Leo Michel

Is “smart defense”—NATO’s effort to promote greater cooperation among the allies in military capabilities and training— a “Trojan Horse” at the service of the “war machine of the American defense industry”?  That would appear to be the conviction of one French senator, according to his remarks before a few hundred parliamentarians, high-ranking officials, general officers, […]

NATO Security & Defense

MENASource

Sep 28, 2012

Top News: Egypt’s Constitution Party Seeks Prosecution for ‘Infidel’ Fatwa by Islamist Sheikhs

By Egypt Source

The Constitution Party filed a report on Thursday with supreme state security prosecutors regarding Salafist preacher Wagdy Ghoneim, and Islamist sheikh and Constituent Assembly member Mohamed El-Athry, for the defamation and insulting of party members. 

New Atlanticist

Sep 28, 2012

Energy Resources in the Eastern Mediterranean: Promise and Peril

By David Koranyi and Adnan Vatansever

A year ago, a tempest was looming in the Eastern Mediterranean. A Turkish exploration vessel named Piri Reis accompanied by warships and jets approached a contested area of newly discovered natural gas fields around Cyprus. Direct confrontation was eventually avoided, thanks in no small part to US and European calls for restraint. Nevertheless, the incident […]

Energy & Environment

New Atlanticist

Sep 28, 2012

Obama v. Romney: More Style than Substance

By Jeffrey Lightfoot

The 2012 US presidential campaign is decidedly not about foreign policy. For Governor Mitt Romney, the campaign is about convincing the American electorate that President Barack Obama has been a poor steward of the economy and should be replaced. For Obama the task is to convince voters that Romney is too out-of-touch with the American […]

Elections National Security

NATOSource

Sep 28, 2012

Will ‘cash-strapped’ European allies pull out of NATO’s missile defense system?

By Justin Stares, Public Service Europe

United States and Canada

NATOSource

Sep 27, 2012

Germany charges 2 alleged Russian spies accused of snooping on EU, NATO strategy

By AP

From AP:  German prosecutors say they have filed espionage charges against two alleged Russian agents whom they accuse of spying for information on European Union and NATO strategy. The federal prosecutors’ office alleged Thursday the pair, who were arrested last October, worked in Germany for Russia’s foreign intelligence service, or SVR, for more than 20 […]

European Union International Organizations

NATOSource

Sep 27, 2012

HPSCI Chair Rogers: ‘U.S. Is Losing Cyber Espionage War’

By Colin Clark, AOL Defense

From Colin Clark, AOL Defense:  The United States is "losing the cyber espionage war" against China, Russia and other countries, but even in the face of such a grave threat the country cannot agree on how to protect its precious intellectual seed capital from these predations, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee says.

Cybersecurity Security & Defense

NATOSource

Sep 27, 2012

Intervention Won’t Save Syria

By Gary C. Gambill, National Interest

From Gary C. Gambill, National Interest: Given the scale of regime atrocities in the interim and the increasingly Sunni Islamist character of the revolt, Alawites and other minorities that benefited disproportionately from Assad’s rule (or at least suffered less than their fair share) have well-grounded fears of violent retribution when the walls come crumbling down.

United States and Canada

NATOSource

Sep 27, 2012

5 Reasons to Intervene in Syria Now

By Michael Doran and Max Boot, New York Times

From Michael Doran and Max Boot, New York Times:  There are five reasons to bring down President Bashar al-Assad sooner rather than later. First, American intervention would diminish Iran’s influence in the Arab world. Iran has showered aid on Syria and even sent advisers from its Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps to assist Mr. Assad. Iran […]

United States and Canada