Atlantic Council blogs

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.
View all
of our blogs
Subscribe to our
newsletters

Latest from across our blogs

NATOSource

Feb 28, 2010

U.S. Warns Russia Against Assertion in Baltic Region

By  RIA Novosti

From RIA Novosti: Though seeking to find new ways of working with Russia, the United States will not accept Moscow’s policies in the Baltic region, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Michele Flournoy said at a news conference in Tallinn on Friday. "We’ve made it very clear that even as we seek to find new ways of […]

United States and Canada

NATOSource

Feb 28, 2010

Baroness Ashton Under Fire for Missing European Defence Summit

By the Times (London)

From the Times (London):  Simmering discontent across the European Union with Baroness Ashton of Upholland’s performance as its first foreign minister turned into outright criticism yesterday as several senior politicians from member states attacked her for missing a key defence meeting. The sniping at Lady Ashton, High Representative for Foreign Affairs — who attended the inauguration of […]

European Union International Organizations

New Atlanticist

Feb 26, 2010

Dutch Afghanistan Exit a Game Changer

By Julian Lindley-French and Kurt Volker

The Dutch Government has fallen over Afghanistan. As a result the August 2010 withdrawal of Dutch forces from Uruzghan, the Afghan province into which the Netherlands has invested money and lives for eight years, will be confirmed.

New Atlanticist

Feb 26, 2010

Russian Economic Model Dead? From BRIC to BIC?

By James Joyner

Anders Åslund asserts that “The Putin model of crony state capitalism is dead” and consequently “the juggernaut of emerging economies in Brazil, Russia, India and China is being reduced from BRIC to BIC.”

New Atlanticist

Feb 26, 2010

Azerbaijan’s Foreign Policy

By James Joyner

Alexandros Petersen, a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Energy Center, was interviewed by Azerbaijan’s News.Az’s Aliyah Fridman. Three Azerbaijani soldiers were killed and one was wounded when Armenians broke the cease-fire on 18 February. May the incident lead to a new war between Azerbaijan and Armenia? Unfortunately, cease-fire violations are common in the […]

NATOSource

Feb 26, 2010

German Parliament Votes to Send More Troops to Afghanistan

By the Financial Times

From the Financial Times: The German government secured broad parliamentary backing to raise its contingent of troops in Afghanistan from 4,500 to up to 5,350, although the traditional cross-party consensus about the mission looked increasingly shaky. Lawmakers from the ruling Christian Democrats and Free Democrats were joined by most opposition Social Democrats. A total of 429 […]

New Atlanticist

Feb 25, 2010

NATO’s Future: Realism Required

By James Joyner

In his speech on revising the NATO Strategic Concept, Defense Secretary Bob Gates termed European reluctance to adequately staff its militaries and shoulder a proportionate share of the operational burden "an impediment to achieving real security and lasting peace."

Cybersecurity Security & Defense

NATOSource

Feb 25, 2010

Rasmussen Seeks to Break Deadlock

By  Europolitics

From Europolitics: NATO’s Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen put forward a series of suggestions, on 25 February, for overcoming the deadlock which has long hamstrung efforts to improve cooperation between the Atlantic alliance and the European Union.  Relations have been dogged by the Turkey-Cyprus dispute, with Ankara blocking cooperation which it feels could lead to sensitive NATO […]

European Union International Organizations

NATOSource

Feb 25, 2010

What’s Really Behind Turkey’s Coup Arrests?

By  Foreign Policy

From Foreign Policy: Three days later, the former commanders of the navy and air force were released — further proof that the government’s intention was to intimidate Turkey’s military, rather than proceed with an indictment against these high-ranking officials. The arrests followed a Feb. 19 incident in which an audio recording of Turkey’s chief of staff […]

United States and Canada

NATOSource

Feb 25, 2010

Stop Slapping the Allies, Secretary Gates

By  Slate

From Slate: Secretary of Defense Robert Gates took a whack at the allies on Tuesday at a NATO Strategic Concept Seminar in Washington, D.C., berating all but a handful of them for spending too little on defense and paying too little attention to the gravest threats of the post-Cold War era… These failings, he concluded, raise […]

United States and Canada