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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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IranSource

Jun 19, 2019

Iran looks to Chabahar and a new transit corridor to survive US sanctions

By Aveek Sen

The Trump administration has exempted the Chabahar port from US sanctions as a gesture toward India, which sees the outpost as a means of facilitating trade with Afghanistan. However, its true potential requires more integration between Iran and among Central Asian states.

Iran

New Atlanticist

Jun 18, 2019

The West must do more to help Ukraine, Atlantic Council’s John Herbst tells Congress

By David A. Wemer

As Russia “seeks to weaken NATO, the European Union, and the United States,” the Western alliance of democracies must push back against Kremlin aggression “and the place to do it is Ukraine,” John Herbst, a former US ambassador to Ukraine and director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center, told US senators at a hearing in Washington on June 18.

Russia Ukraine

New Atlanticist

Jun 18, 2019

Can Xi’s visit to North Korea facilitate US-China trade talks?

By Ashish Kumar Sen

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s first state visit to North Korea this week will underscore Beijing’s clout in Pyongyang and, by doing so, Xi may be looking to re-energize a US effort to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula and gain leverage in stalled US-China trade negotiations.

China Korea

MENASource

Jun 18, 2019

How to counter Iran’s proxies

By Dr. C. Anthony Pfaff

Solutions will emphasize political efforts to continue to isolate Iran from the international community, make dependence on Iranian support less attractive to its proxies, and cultivate partners who can provide the kind of good governance and responsible behavior that serve as a more attractive model than Iran’s divisive practices.

Iran Iraq

AfricaSource

Jun 18, 2019

Mauritania election primer

By Luke Tyburski

Mauritania’s presidential election on June 22 stands to mark the country’s first democratic transfer of power since independence in 1960. This comes as Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who assumed control in a 2008 coup d’état, has agreed to step down, abiding by term limits. Aziz’s ruling Union for the Republic (UPR) party maintains […]

Africa Elections

SyriaSource

Jun 18, 2019

Responding to Assad’s violence against Syrian civilians

By Frederic C. Hof

Yet it is not the policy of the United States that violent regime change in Syria be pursued. Political transition in Syria from corruptly violent family rule to a system reflecting inclusive legitimacy and rule of law should proceed through peaceful negotiations in accordance with the applicable United Nations Security Council resolutions. But these negotiations are not possible while the constituency of one negotiating party is subject to terror, murder, and flight.

Syria

New Atlanticist

Jun 18, 2019

A dispatch from Women Deliver: How the private sector is ensuring women are included in more inclusive growth

By Nicole Goldin

The debate demonstrated how the dialogue on the role of the private sector is shifting: from corporate responsibility to corporate interest and from social impact to bottom line impact—and increasingly both.

Inclusive Growth

IranSource

Jun 18, 2019

Building on past experience, Iran leads the waltz with the US

By Banafsheh Keynoush

During 2013, Iran seized on a rare opportunity to talk directly with the United States for a new round of nuclear negotiations. European countries speaking at the time to Iran to cap its nuclear program asked the US, which had been part of the nuclear talks since 2006, to join in fresh discussions with Iran.

Iran

New Atlanticist

Jun 17, 2019

Mohammed Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president, dies

By David A. Wemer

“While Morsi’s death is a single event, its long-term ramifications will be numerous and far-reaching,” said Jasmine M. El-Gamal, a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security.

North Africa

UkraineAlert

Jun 17, 2019

One month into the Zelenskyy presidency and Ukraine’s still here

By Steven Pifer

Volodymyr Zelenskyy became Ukraine’s sixth president on May 20. The political neophyte’s election raised a host of questions about lack of governing experience, connections to oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, the composition of his inner circle, and his priorities once in office. One month into Zelenskyy’s presidency, those questions still require answers, and we have yet to […]

Conflict Corruption