New Atlanticist

Macron Signifies a New ‘Third Way’ for France and Europe

By Mayecor Sar

The election of Emmanuel Macron as France’s president on May 7 is a welcome boost for “third way” politics, a centrist political philosophy that broadly advocates a combination of right-wing economic and left-wing social policies. For the first time since the 1970s, France has elected a president that does not belong to either of the […]

Iranians Vote for Competence Over Ideology

By Barbara Slavin

Iranians celebrated in the streets of their cities this past weekend out of relief that the most capable candidate on offer won the presidential election held on May 19. Incumbent President Hassan Rouhani’s solid victory over a younger and more hardline cleric, Ebrahim Raisi, was a triumph of competence over ideology and of openness over […]

Pipeline Diplomacy in the Eastern Mediterranean

By Firas Maksad and Jean-François Seznec

A creative solution to a quarrel over maritime borders could serve the interests of Lebanon and Israel Recent oil and gas developments in the eastern Mediterranean have brought back into the spotlight the issue of an ongoing maritime border dispute between Israel and Lebanon that has created uncertainty among prospective foreign investors over the potential […]

Trump Navigates the Middle East

By Giorgio Cafiero and Theodore Karasik

US President Donald J. Trump signaled through his meeting with Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed (MbZ), crown prince of Abu Dhabi and deputy supreme commander of the armed forces of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), in Washington on May 15 his administration’s commitment to working closely with the UAE and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states […]

Arab Gulf States Set to Woo Trump

During US President Donald J. Trump’s upcoming trip to Riyadh, Gulf leaders will seek to portray themselves as capable partners for the United States in countering common threats, namely violent extremism and Iranian aggression, according to an Atlantic Council analyst. Throughout the summit, leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries will “want to make […]

Iran Faces Its Own Populist Test

By Kelly Russo

The outcome of its presidential election on May 19 will determine whether Iran is the next nation to succumb to a populist candidate seeking to upend the normative world order, according to an Atlantic Council analyst.    “This is going to be the next test in that wave,” following the election of US President Donald […]

‘If We Can’t Afford to Protect it, Then We Can’t Afford to Connect it’

The ransomware attack that shut down a number of hospitals in the United Kingdom (UK) on May 12 should serve as a wake-up call to defend critical infrastructure against cyberterrorism, according to an Atlantic Council analyst. “I was never worried that ransomware was going to deliberately kill someone,” said Joshua Corman, director of the Atlantic […]

Trump Shared Secrets with Russia. Here’s Why It Matters.

By Ashish Kumar Sen

The Washington Post reported on May 15 that US President Donald J. Trump disclosed highly classified information to two Russian officials—Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak—in their White House meeting on May 10. “The information the president relayed had been provided by a US partner through an intelligence-sharing arrangement […]

A Simple Security Update Could Have Prevented Ransomware Attack

By Ashish Kumar Sen

A cyberattack that has crippled 200,000 computers in more than 150 countries could have been prevented had the victims conducted a simple security update. “One of the lessons learned here is that people just do not patch their systems,” said Dmitri Alperovitch, a nonresident senior fellow in the Cyber Statecraft Initiative of the Atlantic Council’s […]

For the United States, ISIS Trumps Turkey

US President Donald J. Trump’s decision to arm Kurdish rebels in Syria, despite objections from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, indicates that the new administration’s Turkey policy is secondary to winning the war against the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), according to an Atlantic Council analyst. This decision “would suggest to me that […]