New Atlanticist

Ukraine’s Crisis Government Seeks a Strategy Against Russia

By James Rupert

Despite Crimea Invasion, Kyiv’s Mood Is Moderate, Pragmatic, Non-Violent Ukraine’s interim government took office twelve days ago to face a Russian invasion, a national bankruptcy, and deep regional and political divides. As its top officials prepared to visit Washington this week to seek support, an Atlantic Council delegation first went to Kyiv to meet them, […]

Lost in Space

By Bharath Gopalaswamy

The Crimean Crisis highlights America’s Dangerous Dependence on Russian Space Technology. The Crimea crisis, the sharpest conflict in decades between the United States and Russia, is raising concerns about the future of the U.S. space program. The cooperation in space that Washington and Moscow fostered in the quarter-century since the Cold War ended is now […]

Russia is Playing a Weak Hand Very Strongly

A regular contributor to CNN.com, Ambassador-in-Residence Michael Oren writes that in both Syria and Iran, Russia has played its relatively weak strategic hand exceedingly well and is threatening to outmaneuver the United States in the Middle East. Meanwhile, the United States has paused its effots to forge an Israeli-Palestinian peace in order to generate pressure on […]

Don’t Give Up on Crimea

By Damon Wilson

Ukrainian Troops Sustain Symbols of Sovereignty That Could Weaken Russia’s Grip Twenty-four hours after being named to command Ukrainian forces in Crimea, Rear Admiral Denis Berezovsky switched allegiance to the Russia-installed Crimean puppet government. Accompanied by Russian special operations troops and unidentified gunmen, he strode into the Ukrainian military’s Perevalne base demanding that its soldiers […]

To Bolster Ukraine, Help Modernize its Arms Industry

By James Hasik

A Better Army and Economy Will Help Kyiv Stay Independent of Moscow As the United States and NATO search for the right ways to oppose Russia’s seizure from Ukraine of the Crimean Peninsula, policymakers should note a surprising industrial fact: Ukraine is the world’s fourth-largest arms exporter, having sold more than $1.3 billion in weapons […]

US Needs New Strategy for Syria

By Barbara Slavin

 Reports that UN special envoy for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, is considering resigning should not surprise anyone. Two rounds of “peace talks” in Geneva between the Syrian regime and émigré opposition figures produced no progress toward a political solution of the conflict, which this month marks a third grim anniversary.

Sweden and America Link Arms on Development Assistance

By Mark Brzezinski and Bjorn Lyrvall

If we asked a random sample of people what the world of 2030 might look like, what sorts of answers would we get? Amid predictions of advances in medicine, transportation and communications technology, we would no doubt expect some dire hypothetical scenarios: If population growth continues at current rates, if the gap in income equality […]

Is Crimea Preparing to Exit Ukraine?

By Rajan Menon

The Crimean parliament has voted to organize a referendum on March 16 if the Russian government — basically Putin — agrees that the territory is eligible to become part of the Russian Federation and to secede from Ukraine. But here’s the problem:

Break Up in the Gulf

By Bilal Y. Saab

On March 5, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Bahrain announced that they had withdrawn their ambassadors from Qatar, claiming that Doha had been violating a clause in the Gulf Cooperation Council charter banning interference in the domestic affairs of fellow GCC members. The decision, unprecedented in the GCC’s history, hints at significant […]

What Ukraine’s Crisis Means for the Syrian War

By New Atlanticist

Edward Joseph, at Johns Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies, notes the uncertainty over Russian intentions in Syria, and over the effect of of the Russian-Ukrainian crisis on Moscow’s role in Syria. He writes that now is the time for US diplomacy to test Russia on Syria with a new diplomatic effort there. An excerpt […]