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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

Dec 18, 2011

Is Egypt Running Out of Tear Gas?

By Mara Revkin

Over the past two days, soldiers and military police have used almost everything within arm’s reach — fire hoses, batons, thrown rocks, furniture and glass projectiles — to break up crowds in Tahrir Squre and outside of the Council of Ministers Building.

MENASource

Dec 17, 2011

SCAF Denies Shooting, Offers Power Transfer by Referendum

By Mara Revkin

Field Marshal Field Marshal Tantawi has issued a "letter to the Egyptian people" expressing the SCAF’s increasingly defensive posture, but at the same time appearing to yield ground to protesters by offering to immediately hand over power "if the people demand it through a legislative referendum."

MENASource

Dec 17, 2011

Video: Military Police Attack Protesters in Tahrir

By Mara Revkin

Eyewitness reports and shocking video depict military personnel and plain-clothed thugs beating unarmed protesters and medics while attempting to clear Tahrir Square on December 17.

NATOSource

Dec 16, 2011

Syria’s civil war is already drawing in foreign powers

By Jim Hoagland, the Washington Post

From Jim Hoagland, the Washington Post:  It is the Arab Earthquake. Not “spring,” not “wave of reform,” not even “awakening” can describe the systemic upheaval that has engulfed Syria, where other Arab nations actively press for the overthrow of the regime headed by Bashar al-Assad. Let us call an earthquake an earthquake.

United Kingdom United States and Canada

NATOSource

Dec 16, 2011

China’s cyberwar

By the Editors of the Washington Post

From the Editors of the Washington Post:  China is waging a quiet, mostly invisible but massive cyberwar against the United States, aimed at stealing its most sensitive military and economic secrets and obtaining the ability to sabotage vital infrastructure.

Cybersecurity Security & Defense

NATOSource

Dec 16, 2011

British Defense chief signals era of new military alliances

By Richard Norton-Taylor and Nick Hopkins, the Guardian

From Richard Norton-Taylor and Nick Hopkins, the Guardian:  The British government’s most senior defence and security policy advisers are finally facing up to a fundamental shift in the world’s military and economic balance.

United Kingdom United States and Canada

MENASource

Dec 16, 2011

Military Cracks Down on “Occupy Cabinet” Protest

By Tarek Radwan

Cairo has once again erupted in chaos in and around Tahrir as security forces under the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) sent troops to clear the "Occupy Cabinet" protests early Friday morning. Although the Egyptian Ministry of Health reports 99 wounded at the time of writing, activists in and around the cabinet building […]

NATOSource

Dec 16, 2011

Serb air force seeks new fighter jets

By Aleksandar Vasovic, Reuters

From Aleksandar Vasovic, Reuters:  The Serbian air force, left with just a handful of operational planes after wars in the 1990s, wants to buy a dozen aircraft at a cost of around 1 billion euros (1.3 billion), a defence official said on Friday.

United States and Canada

New Atlanticist

Dec 16, 2011

Iran Hedges Its Bets on Syria

By Barbara Slavin

Iran is courting the opposition to Syrian President Bashar al- Assad, seeking to maintain a crucial alliance in the event that Assad falls. So far, Iranian officials have met at least twice with members of the National Coordinating Committee (NCC). The Damascus-based group opposes foreign intervention in Syria and advocates reform to resolve the nine-month-old […]

Iran Syria

New Atlanticist

Dec 16, 2011

A Week is a Long Time in High and Low Politics

By Julian Lindley-French

In 1964 former British Prime Minister Harold Wilson said, “A week is a long time in politics”. This has been a very long week for both high and low politics.

European Union International Organizations