New Atlanticist

Turkey’s Erdoğan Claims an Election Victory: Is He Right?

By New Atlanticist

Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan claimed a victory in Sunday’s municipal elections, in which his Justice and Development Party (AKP) appeared to have won the largest share of the nationwide vote for mayors and local government councils. 

The US and EU Must Take New Steps Quickly to Help Ukraine

By Taras Kuzio

Transatlantic Allies Should Include Military Aid for Kyiv News organizations last week reported a new conclusion by US intelligence agencies that Russian forces massed on Ukraine’s eastern borders are increasingly likely to invade mainland Ukraine, only weeks after seizing Crimea. Russian President Vladimir Putin is determined to undermine the political legitimacy of a Ukrainian government […]

A Dangerous Lapse: US, EU Lose Focus on Arab Democracy

By New Atlanticist

The crisis over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine dominated this week’s EU-US Summit in Brussels, followed by the topics that had been intended as top priorities for the meeting: negotiations for a broad transatlantic trade partnership and Europe’s anger at how pervasively it has been spied upon by the US National Security Agency. Missing from the […]

As Turkey Votes Sunday, Democracy and Stability Are at Stake

By Sabine Freizer

Voters in Turkey will elect mayors and local councils Sunday in an act that will resonate far beyond the local issues that typically dominate municipal elections. They will deliver a referendum on the 11-year rule of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. And the balloting will open a cycle of three elections in coming months that […]

Keystone XL as the Greens’ Waterloo

By Robert A. Manning

Protesting the pipeline won’t rekindle the cooling climate-change issue The Keystone XL pipeline has become a holy cause for environmentalists to rebel against, as evidenced by candlelight vigils in 49 states and a parade of protests across the country. It is also an agonizing decision facing President Obama. While both sides of the Keystone debate have wrongly […]

The Value of Human Rights Advocacy with Friends and Foes

By Barbara Slavin

With Ukraine still dominating the headlines and the carnage in Syria overwhelming other stories from the Middle East, there was still a news item this week from Egypt that was breath-taking in demonstrating how far that country has fallen in terms of respecting basic human rights.

Are Russian Troops Preparing to Seize All of Southern Ukraine?

By James Rupert

As Kyiv Asks Citizens to Donate to the Army, its Military Weakness May Encourage Moscow Russia has massed an invasion-ready force on Ukraine’s eastern border and NATO’s top commander, US Air Force General Philip Breedlove, said Sunday that the deployment may be aimed at annexing a part of Moldova, to Ukraine’s west. To do so, […]

Fears of Further Russian Military Action Have the West on Edge

As Russian troops moved to occupy Ukraine’s last outstanding military bases in Crimea, Ukrainian leadership called for its forces to withdraw.  The West continues to worry over how far Russia will go and uncertainty abounds as to what, if anything, NATO will do in response.

Hitting Russia’s Economy: What Obama and EU Must Do Wednesday in Brussels

By Frances G. Burwell

President Obama and his European Union colleagues will gather Wednesday in the most important meeting so far for Western governments as they decide how to respond to Russia’s egregious, illegal seizure of Crimea from Ukraine. US and European sanctions so far have targeted individuals among Moscow’s elite, rather than the broader Russian economy. At the […]