New Atlanticist

A Strategy for Syria & Iraq

By Barry Pavel

The spread of the Syria crisis to engulf Iraq was predicted and predictable.  Some have called the Syria conflict a “factory for extremism.”  For years, many have been urging more robust US leadership and action in this crisis – not “boots on the ground” but using US military forces in a coalition with our allies and partners to […]

A Ukrainian Filmmaker in Prison for Opposing Russia’s Occupation of Crimea

By Irene Chalupa

Oleg Sentsov Waved Ukrainian Flags, Now is in Moscow’s Former KGB Prison Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov, a native of Crimea, won wide acclaim a couple of years back with a sensitive docu-drama about a teenager caught between his success in the virtual world of video games and his struggle in the real world around […]

DIRECT TRANSLATION: ‘Donbas, the Heart of Russia’

By Irena Chalupa

A Commentator Close to Putin Writes: Unitary Ukraine is Finished A prominent Russian business magazine, Ekspert, publishes a lead article this week by two highly placed Russian policy thinkers writing about Ukraine’s southeastern provinces and proclaiming, “We won’t abandon them.” That emotional headline might represent more than just another piece of nationalist opinion-making, for the […]

Storify: #ACAbdullah with Afghanistan Presidential Candidate Dr. Abdullah Abdullah

The stakes could not be higher. Afghanistan faces an historic presidential election on June 14 with a runoff between frontrunners Dr. Ashraf Ghani and Dr. Abdullah Abdullah. 

Ukraine Needs, and Could Manage, a Polish-Style ‘Shock Therapy’ Reform Plan

By Irena Chalupa

Veterans of Poland’s Economic Transformation Urge Ukraine to Clean Corruption ‘to the Bone’ Today Poland and Ukraine have closer relations than ever in their mutual history. Since the fall of communism, a historically adversarial relationship has evolved into a strategic partnership. Over the past decade, Polish statesmen such as Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski or former […]

Karachi Airport Attack Shows Vulnerabilities in Pakistan’s Anti-Terror Strategy

By New Atlanticist

Government’s New Policy Focuses on Response to Attacks, Should Stress Prevention Militants launched a well-coordinated, commando-style attack on Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport Sunday night, killing at least 18 people and seizing part of Pakistan’s busiest air-travel hub for more than five hours. Shuja Nawaz, director of the Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center, provides an early […]

DIRECT TRANSLATION: Russian Fighters, Killed in Ukraine, are Buried Quietly Near Moscow

By James Rupert

Russia’s Ekho Moskvy radio and the newspaper Novaya Gazeta (partly owned by former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev), have been peeling back the secrecy surrounding the thirty-one Russian citizens killed two weeks ago fighting with secessionist militias in southeast Ukraine. Novaya Gazeta reports that thirty of those killed were ethnic Russians, and the other a Chechen. […]