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SyriaSource

Nov 17, 2017

Squaring the Circle in Eastern Syria

By Frederic C. Hof

Readers of SyriaSource are all too familiar with an argument advanced in these pages for well-over two years: ISIS (Daesh, ISIL, Islamic State) should be neutralized quickly in eastern Syria; an American-led, professional ground force coalition-of-the-willing should be assembled to preempt ISIS terror operations in Turkey and Western Europe and minimize Syrian civilian casualties in […]

Syria

New Atlanticist

Nov 16, 2017

Climate Change as a Threat Multiplier

By Joe Bryan

While the twenty-third Conference of the Parties (COP23) was beginning in Bonn, the US House and Senate Armed Services Committees were wrapping up negotiations on the fiscal year 2018 National Defense Authorization Act. The bipartisan conference report that emerged from those negotiations calls climate change “a direct threat to the national security of the United […]

New Atlanticist

Nov 16, 2017

Building Transatlantic Common Ground in Combating Global Warming

By Sonja Thielges

As the world gathered in Bonn for its twenty-third Conference of the Parties (COP23), the newly published Emissions Gap Report 2017 by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) helped to underline the mantra of the conference: all countries need to raise their climate protection efforts quickly and substantially. The report shows that even if fully […]

Germany United States and Canada

New Atlanticist

Nov 16, 2017

Bonn as the Waystation Between Ambition and Implementation

By Ellen Scholl

The climate conference in Bonn has served as an important bellwether of the international communities’ continuing commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions and of the impact of US President Donald J. Trump’s decision to pull the United States out of the Paris Agreement.  As the 23rd Conference of the Parties (COP) comes to a close, […]

New Atlanticist

Nov 16, 2017

Fiji’s COP23 presidency highlights climate struggles of small island nations

By Gray Johnson, Becca Hunziker

Despite all eyes on the United States in the wake of US President Donald J. Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, Fiji, the host of the twenty-third Conference of the Parties (COP23), framed the conversation in Bonn around the challenges climate change poses to small island nations and how larger, wealthier nations can help.

Climate Change & Climate Action Geopolitics & Energy Security

New Atlanticist

Nov 16, 2017

How is India Faring with its Clean Energy Goals?

By Robert F. Ichord, Jr.

As signatories to the Paris Climate Agreement meet in Bonn for COP23—and new forecasts show an increase in CO2 emissions after three flat years—India’s efforts to transform its energy system are a key focus of attention.  As the world’s second-largest coal consumer and third-largest carbon emitter, India’s policies and actions are critical to the future […]

MENASource

Nov 16, 2017

Budget politics and Baghdad-Kurdish relations

By Harith Hasan

One of the main disputes behind tensions between the Iraqi federal government and Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) includes disagreement over budget allocation. This month, the Iraqi government approved the proposed budget for 2018 and sent it to the parliament for debate in the coming weeks. The draft budget, strongly criticized by the KRG, is the […]

Iraq

New Atlanticist

Nov 15, 2017

NATO Takes Another Square on the Cyber Chessboard

By Kenneth Geers

The most effective solutions to persistent threats from cyberspace will come from international alliances such as the European Union (EU) and NATO, both of which have begun to take steps to bolster members’ resistance to cyberattacks from governments and non-state actors, a complex issue with a long history.  Last week, on November 10, NATO defense […]

Cybersecurity Security & Defense

MENASource

Nov 15, 2017

Western foreign policy and the dignity of the Arab world: Interview with Dr. H.A. Hellyer

By MENASource

Following a recent controversy where a British journalist at a conference in Egypt casually implied that the peoples of the Arab world were more culturally inured towards restrictions on press freedom, we discussed the issue of democracy and Arab culture with Atlantic Council’s senior non-resident fellow, Dr. H.A. Hellyer. “That journalist asserted that people shouldn’t […]

Middle East

IranSource

Nov 15, 2017

Trump Administration Misses Opportunities to Show Concern for Iranian People

By Barbara Slavin

While opposing many policies of the Iranian government, Trump administration officials have frequently claimed to care for the Iranian people. But such sentiments are belied by the feeble US official response to a massive earthquake that has killed more than 500 Iranians in a remote area on the Iran-Iraq border.

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