New Atlanticist

Obama Skirts Egypt in State of the Union Address

By Barbara Slavin

In his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama devoted most of a limited section on foreign policy to the Middle East but uttered not one word about that region’s most populous and influential nation: Egypt.

Dealing with Chinese Military Modernization

Asking Hard Questions and Supporting Tough Decisions As China modernizes its armed forces, the United States’ huge advantage in military technology is eroding – and US policymakers cannot realistically hope to reverse that change with increased spending, according to Roger Cliff, an Atlantic Council specialist on East Asian security. To maintain US military’s edge over […]

Barack Obama Gives Sixth Address to Joint Session of Congress

Tomorrow, Council experts will deconstruct #SOTU for members and press on a conference call. Domestic policy is the centerpiece of this year’s speech.

Ukraine: Is Yanukovych Finished?

By Rajan Menon

For a while it looked as if Ukraine’s embattled president, Viktor Yanukovych, had survived the political tidal wave that followed his decision to mothball the Association Agreement he’d hammered out with the European Union and instead to accept a lifeline from Russia (a $15 billion loan plus a one-third reduction in the price of natural […]

As Egypt Burns, Tunisia and Yemen Step Toward Democracy

By New Atlanticist

As Egypt’s three-year-old popular uprising has cycled into new violence and repression, Tunisia and Yemen offer a counterpoint of hope with their tangible steps toward democracy this month, write Stefanie Hausheer and Lara Talverdian of the Atlantic Council. Tunisians approved a constitution “hailed by observers as the most progressive in the region with its guarantees […]

Turkey’s Troubles May Set Back Kurdish, US Hopes

By Müjge Küçükkeleş and Jeffrey Mankoff

The Turkish government’s mounting domestic challenges, notably from the corruption investigation of senior officials that became public in December, may increase the risk that Prime Minister Erdoğan will be unable to complete a peace process he opened more than a year ago with Turkey’s Kurdish rebels. A failure of that reconciliation effort could increase the […]

Iran Nuclear Deal Opens Doors for Students

By Barbara Slavin

Among the beneficiaries of the interim nuclear agreement with Iran that went into effect this week are Iranian students abroad and the Western educational institutions that are already seeing rising interest from Iran. A senior Barack Obama administration official on Monday told reporters “we’ve committed that up to $400 million of Iran’s own money can […]

Some Good News from the Syria Talks

By New Atlanticist

Syria’s opposition movement made a credible start toward establishing itself as a serious interlocutor, one of two positive developments from the opening of UN-sponsored peace talks on the Syrian civil war that are noted by Senior Fellow Frederic C. Hof. The other good news, writes Hof, is that Secretary of State John Kerry made clear […]

Getting to Yes on Transatlantic Financial Regulation

By Chris Brummer

As 2014 gets underway, signs of a fraying regulatory relationship between the European Union and the United States seem to be everywhere. The US Federal Reserve’s tough new regulations on foreign banks have spurred the European Commission to threaten retaliation. Progress toward reconciling US and EU rules on derivatives – one of the main causes of the […]

Pham Discusses South Sudan on VOA

By J. Peter Pham

Africa Center Director J. Peter Pham joins VOA’s “On the Line” program to discuss the political rivalry between South Sudanese President Salva Kiir and former Vice President Riek Machar, the origins of the current fighting in the country, and the implications of the violence for South Sudan, the region, and the world.