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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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Latest from across our blogs

BelarusAlert

Sep 14, 2021

Belarus dictator poses growing threat to Ukraine

By Lisa Yasko

Belarusian dictator Alyaksandr Lukashenka's growing dependence on the Kremlin is allowing Vladimir Putin to expand his military presence in Belarus and creating a new front in Russia's hybrid war against Ukraine.

Belarus Conflict

UkraineAlert

Sep 14, 2021

Ukraine’s Zelenskyy vows to fight for judicial reform

By Halyna Chyzhyk

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called an extraordinary meeting of politicians, diplomats, and members of the judiciary in order to prevent his flagship judicial reform drive from being sabotaged and derailed.

Corruption Democratic Transitions

SouthAsiaSource

Sep 13, 2021

Afghanistan’s economy is in free fall mode

By Farshid Hakimyar

On August 18, Ajmal Ahmadi, the former governor of Afghanistan’s Central Bank, tweeted about the bank’s balance sheet, citing that all DAB assets are safeguarded in the US Federal Reserve, the World Bank, and the Bank of International Settlements in the form of US Treasury bills, bonds, gold and cash–a total of $9.6 billion that, just one day before the collapse, the US government had frozen and banned from all financial transactions.

Afghanistan Economy & Business

MENASource

Sep 13, 2021

Defusing Saudi Arabia-UAE tensions through economic rebalancing

By Hani Findakly

By identifying the economic imbalances contributing to the breakdown, recalibration is possible to rebuild a more balanced relationship that circumvents the zero-sum game that has given rise to the Riyadh-Abu Dhabi dispute.

New Atlanticist

Sep 10, 2021

Afghanistan’s ex-central bank chief: The Taliban has money to ‘run an insurgency but not a government’

By Dan Peleschuk

At an Atlantic Council event, Ajmal Ahmady discussed how the Taliban must govern a country short on cash and mired in multiple crises.

Afghanistan Conflict

New Atlanticist

Sep 10, 2021

Confronting the disaster left behind in Afghanistan

By Mir Sadat

The United States screwed up the endgame in Afghanistan once again, but working with allies and private rescue efforts, there's time to make things right.

Afghanistan Conflict

New Atlanticist

Sep 10, 2021

Gregory Meeks: For counterterrorism and economic opportunity, turn toward Africa

By Katherine Golden

After the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, it has become clear that “terrorism now is global, and we’ve got to work in a multilateral way to combat and fight that,” said US Representative Gregory Meeks.

Afghanistan Africa

New Atlanticist

Sep 9, 2021

Sanctions alone won’t tame the Taliban

By Brian O’Toole

The United States and its allies will need to wield both existing and new sanctions as strategically as possible, but changing the regime's behavior will be difficult.

Afghanistan Financial Sanctions and Economic Coercion

UkraineAlert

Sep 9, 2021

Odesa’s unique place in Ukraine’s cultural evolution

By Andrew D’Anieri

Ukrainian Black Sea port city Odesa occupies a unique place in the country's cultural evolution thanks to its unrivaled international pedigree and the limitless creative ambitions of the local cultural community.

Civil Society Resilience & Society

UkraineAlert

Sep 9, 2021

Why Ukraine must join NATO

By Adrian Hoefer

Given the Kremlin's hostile revisionism, Ukraine's membership in NATO is in the long-term interest of the US and its allies. As Moscow expands its hybrid war on the West, Ukraine is an asset.

Eastern Europe International Organizations