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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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NATOSource

Oct 25, 2011

NATO still hopes to link Russia to missile shield

By Vladimir Isachenkov, the AP

NATOSource

Oct 25, 2011

U.S. dismantling its most powerful nuclear bomb

By the AP

From the AP:  The last of the nation’s most powerful nuclear bombs — a weapon hundreds of times stronger than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima — is being disassembled nearly half a century after it was put into service at the height of the Cold War.

United States and Canada

New Atlanticist

Oct 25, 2011

US Troop Deployment to Central Africa: Timing, Risks, and Rewards

By James Cook

Last week, President Obama sent a letter to Congress announcing the deployment of a “small number of combat equipped US forces to Central Africa in order to provide assistance for regional forces that are working towards the removal of Joseph Kony from the battlefield.”

New Atlanticist

Oct 25, 2011

Der Plan and the Onion: Under New Management

By Julian Lindley-French

There is something vaguely disturbing watching a Brussels European Onion summit from afar; especially when the topic is how to waste even more of my money. Watching a few with an awful lot of money in offshore tax havens (the Euro-Aristocracy) instructing a few others on huge tax-free salaries (the Onionistas of the European Omission) […]

European Union International Organizations

New Atlanticist

Oct 25, 2011

Azerbaijan’s Gas Gambit

By Borut Grgic

After splitting from the Soviet Union to chart its own path, Azerbaijan’s journey to present day energy pivot is sprinkled with moments of extreme humanitarian suffering, war, loss of territory, diplomatic uncertainty, and massive advancements in the energy sector. A recent discovery at the Absherone offshore field has elevated the estimated total amount of proven […]

Energy & Environment

New Atlanticist

Oct 24, 2011

Iraq: A Trillion Dollars Worth of Nothing

By Sarwar Kashmeri

For many Americans, news that the nearly 9-year-old war in Iraq is finally over will evoke feelings of relief but also revulsion. Relief, for the families of the military women and men that are coming home. And revulsion, for the officials and politicians that lacked the courage to prevent this unnecessary war. For me personally, […]

Iraq

NATOSource

Oct 24, 2011

Afghan President Says His Country Would Back Pakistan in a Clash With the U.S.

By Ray Rivera and Sangar Rahimi , the New York Times

From Ray Rivera and Sangar Rahimi , the New York Times:  Days after he stood with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and accused Pakistan of harboring his country’s enemies, President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan said this weekend that his country would support Pakistan if it ever went to war with the United States. 

United States and Canada

New Atlanticist

Oct 24, 2011

As 2012 Polls Loom, Caution’s the Word for Obama Foreign Policy

By Barbara Slavin

U.S. presidents seeking a second term are not known for taking risks in foreign policy in election years. Ronald Reagan quickly withdrew U.S. troops from Lebanon in 1983, a year before he sought re-election, after the U.S. forces there became the target of bombings by Shiite militants. George W. Bush launched the war in Iraq […]

NATOSource

Oct 24, 2011

Is NATO’s intervention in Libya a model for future wars?

By Thom Shanker and Eric Schmitt, the New York Times

From Thom Shanker and Eric Schmitt, the New York Times:  The United States military has spent just $1.1 billion in Libya, and in the words of Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., “didn’t lose a single life.” He added that “this is more of the prescription for how to deal with the world as we […]

United Kingdom United States and Canada

New Atlanticist

Oct 24, 2011

Vladimir, Fear the Arab Spring’s Message

By Anna Borshchevskaya

The protests sweeping the Middle East have revolved around economics and accountability. After decades of corrupt and stagnant rule, Tunisians, Egyptians, Libyans and Syrians found themselves impoverished and no longer willing to acquiesce to dictatorship. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s announcement last month that he would seek a third presidential term raises the possibility that […]

Russia