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New Atlanticist

Oct 30, 2017

Paul Manafort’s Ukraine Connection

By Ashish Kumar Sen

Long before Paul Manafort served as Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign chairman he worked for Viktor Yanukovych, the pro-Russian former president of Ukraine. It was in this role that Anders Åslund, a resident senior fellow in the Atlantic Council’s Dinu Patriciu Eurasia Center, first met Manafort. Manafort would seek advice from Åslund, who served as […]

Russia Ukraine
Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, October 26, 2017

NATOSource

Oct 30, 2017

NATO Chief says Allies Concerned about Russian Phone Jamming

By Lorne Cook, AP

NATO allies have raised concerns about what they call Russia’s use of a kind of electronic warfare during military exercises last month that jammed some phone networks, alliance Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday.

NATO Northern Europe

New Atlanticist

Oct 30, 2017

Getting South Sudan Right

By Ashish Kumar Sen

Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, delivered a stern message to South Sudanese President Salva Kiir in their meeting in Juba on October 24: the United States is “disappointed” in Kiir’s leadership and he must not take US assistance for granted. In a stark reminder of the perilous situation in the six-year-old […]

Africa

IranSource

Oct 30, 2017

Building on the JCPOA with a WMD Free Zone in the Middle East

By Mehran Haghirian

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is arguably the most comprehensive and verifiable non-proliferation agreement since the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). It not only ensures against the proliferation of nuclear weapons, but also recognizes the right to a peaceful nuclear program. As more countries, including members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) develop nuclear […]

Trade in Action

Oct 30, 2017

TRADE IN ACTION October 30

By Global Business & Economics Program

THIS WEEK IN TRADELast Friday, just shortly before President Donald Trump arrives in Beijing in early November, the Commerce Department hit imports of Chinese aluminum foil with preliminary anti-dumping duties, ranging from 97 percent to more than 162 percent. 

Economy & Business Japan

UkraineAlert

Oct 30, 2017

How to End the War in Eastern Ukraine

By Alexander Vershbow

The recent US debate about Russia has focused mainly on Moscow’s disinformation, propaganda, and interference in our elections. But Russia’s aggression against Ukraine remains the original sin and the biggest threat. It’s not just Ukraine’s survival as an independent, democratic state that is on the line, but the future of an international order based on […]

Russia Ukraine

Rebuilding Syria

Oct 30, 2017

Education in Syria Needs More Than Short-Term Solutions

By Kinana Qaddour

Syria’s situation—the massive amount of discussion, fragmented governance, and ongoing fighting—are not going to disappear anytime soon, and education models in Syria need to better adapt to it to address the growing learning gap. Although many organizations have programs to address education gaps for Syrian students, their approaches—focusing on access over quality, building traditional schools, […]

Syria

MENASource

Oct 27, 2017

Abadi’s balancing act between the US and Iran

By Harith Hasan

Not many heads of governments in the Middle East can move swiftly between Riyadh, Cairo, Amman, Ankara, and Tehran, and receive a warm welcome in all those capitals. Iraqi Prime Minister, Haider al-Abadi, followed this itinerary in the last few days, trying to create the image of a competent leader who victoriously took Iraq out […]

Iran Iraq

New Atlanticist

Oct 27, 2017

Spain’s Crisis Sharpens

By Ashish Kumar Sen

The crisis in Spain dramatically escalated on October 27 with Catalonia’s regional parliament declaring independence and the Spanish Senate responding with the approval of unprecedented powers for Madrid to seize control of the autonomous region. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy called an emergency cabinet meeting and could fire Catalan President Carles Puigdemont and his ministers—he […]

European Union International Organizations

New Atlanticist

Oct 27, 2017

Africa Rising? Kenya Extends the Continent’s Losing Streak

By Bronwyn Bruton

For decades, Africa was portrayed by the international community as the hopeless continent. Then, as African countries staged a takeover of the world’s fastest-growing economies list in the early 2000s, the narrative shifted to “Africa rising.” It was eventually noticed that not all of Africa was rising. In fact, if anything, Africa was splitting in […]

Africa East Africa