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New Atlanticist

May 23, 2018

Trump’s Plan B for Iran

By Matthew Kroenig

Several years ago, Henry Kissinger famously stated that Iran must decide if it wants to be a country or a cause. On May 21, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo re-articulated this question, offering Iran a sharp choice: to be welcomed back into the community of nations if it abandons its destabilizing security policies or […]

Iran Nuclear Nonproliferation

New Atlanticist

May 21, 2018

How Trump’s Meeting with Moon Can Help Him Prepare for the Summit with Kim

By Miyeon Oh

US President Donald J. Trump must use his meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in to ensure that the United States and South Korea are completely aligned, with no differences that could be exploited by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in his upcoming summit with Trump. In this way, Trump’s May 22 meeting with Moon […]

Korea

New Atlanticist

May 21, 2018

Sleepless in Seoul

By Frederick Kempe

Why I’ve grown more optimistic that we have the chance to repair history’s bloodiest remaining divide. Jet lag can play tricks on the mind. Lying wide awake at just past three in the morning, some thirteen hours ahead of DC time in South Korea, I grow convinced we are within reach of the chance of […]

Korea

New Atlanticist

May 21, 2018

The Atlantic Council Must be Open to Dialogue—Even if Critics Disagree

By John E. Herbst

I am sorry to see the letter from a group that opposes a private dinner that we are holding with Peter Aven and Mikhail Fridman of Alfa Group. I have the greatest of respect for this distinguished group of people, and we have more often been on the same side when it comes to campaigning […]

Russia

New Atlanticist

May 21, 2018

Oligarchs from Alfa Group Should be Asked Critical Questions at the Atlantic Council Dinner

By The Undersigned (Signatories Below)

Last week we—Russian and US experts and activists—learned that an off-the-record roundtable dinner with Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven, principals of the Alfa Group, will be held on May 21 at the Atlantic Council. These Kremlin regime insiders are both listed on the January update of the US government list “Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions […]

Russia

New Atlanticist

May 21, 2018

The Regional Consequences of Trump’s Decision to Ditch the Iran Nuclear Deal

By Rachel Ansley

Though Iran has thus far remained in compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the US decision to withdraw from the nuclear deal could be the first domino to fall, setting off a chain of escalatory events throughout the region. “This change is US policy is happening at a time when the region […]

Iran

New Atlanticist

May 21, 2018

Pompeo’s ‘Plan B’ on Iran: Accurate Diagnosis, Inadequate Cure

By Barbara Slavin

In an audacious speech before the Heritage Foundation on May 21, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo outlined a litany of complaints about the nuclear deal with Iran that accurately reflected some of its gaps, but offered no realistic remedies. Pompeo’s prescription to achieve his “Plan B”—“unprecedented financial pressure on the Iranian regime”—is unlikely to […]

Iran

New Atlanticist

May 21, 2018

Can the European Union’s Sanctions Blocking Regulation Save the Iran Nuclear Deal?

By Brian O'Toole

The European Union (EU) on May 18 announced that it was beginning the process to activate its proposed blocking regulation, initially proposed in 1996 to try to counteract what the EU saw as the extraterritorial reach under the United States’ Iran-Libya Sanctions Act (ILSA) and Cuba sanctions program. Those disagreements were settled politically with the […]

European Union International Organizations

New Atlanticist

May 18, 2018

Muqtada al-Sadr: From US Foe to Iraqi Kingmaker

By Andrea Taylor

The checkered and turbulent past of the man best poised to take on the role of “kingmaker” in Iraq may return to impact his ability to form a government, and Iraq’s relationship with the United States. The ethnically and politically diverse Alliance of Revolutionaries for Reform, led by prominent Iraqi political figure Muqtada al-Sadr, won […]

Iraq

New Atlanticist

May 18, 2018

Italy May Soon Be Led by an Anti-EU, Pro-Putin Coalition

By Nick Ottens

Italy’s populist Five Star Movement and the League have finalized a coalition agreement that challenges the consensus of the European Union (EU). There are still a couple of hurdles to be cleared: the parties have yet to agree on a candidate for prime minister and supporters of the Five Star Movement are voting in an […]

European Union International Organizations