Category: Blogs

How Ukraine Can Win the Revolution Again

By Kateryna Smagliy

Ukraine now boasts a new layer of democratic paint, but the old oligarchic colors are peeking through. Three years after Petro Poroshenko assumed the presidency, numerous experts warn that a counter-revolution is on the horizon and that Ukraine may slide back to authoritarianism. Ukraine is at serious risk of failing again. Civic activists failed to […]

Here’s Why Latin America Matters

By Ashish Kumar Sen

Interview with Jason Marczak, newly appointed director of the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center Jason Marczak, the newly appointed director of the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center, discussed his vision for the Center and approaches to regional challenges in an interview with the New Atlanticist’s Ashish Kumar Sen. Here are excerpts […]

North Korea Tests Donald Trump

By Ashish Kumar Sen

North Korea’s missile test over Japan on August 29 came “perilously close” to being an act of war; the question now is how will US President Donald J. Trump react, said the Atlantic Council’s Robert A. Manning. In response to past North Korean missile tests, Trump vowed to rain down “fire and fury”  on the […]

How Trump Can Get Putin’s Attention

By Stephen Blank

Two days after Russia told US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson it was willing to talk about Ukraine, Moscow unilaterally and illegally closed the Kerch Strait, ostensibly for technical reasons. So much for a willingness to talk. Russia is not only threatening Ukraine again, it also is displaying contempt for President Donald Trump personally. Moscow’s […]

Syria’s Buffer Zone Along the Euphrates

By Hossam Abouzahr and Tarek Radwan

The Pentagon announced on August 21 that it agreed to a buffer zone (or deconfliction line) that roughly adhered to the Euphrates River. This new buffer zone agreement re-establishes a previous agreement and was reached after the United States shot down a Syrian regime SU-22 in June, creating fears of escalation that could draw international […]

Rules for Reconstruction in Syria

By Steven Heydemann

On August 17, Syrian officials oversaw the opening of the first Damascus International Exhibition since the start of the Syrian uprising. Reflecting the triumphalism now widely on display in Damascus, the exhibition—an international trade fair—has been heavily promoted by the Assad regime, presented as a symbol of its victory over the insurgency that began more […]

The Awkward Space for Syria’s Post-Conflict Reconstruction

By Emma Beals

International political opinion about the future of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad has shifted. President Donald Trump’s revocation of any remaining support for the covert CIA ‘Train and Equip’ program, and French President Emmanuel Macron’s recent admission that the removal of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is no longer a key policy objective, demonstrate the faded political […]

Trump’s Afghanistan Strategy Turns Up the Heat on Pakistan

US President Donald J. Trump’s new strategy for Afghanistan effectively puts the onus on Pakistan to end its support for terrorists. If this strategy is to succeed, the United States must “adopt a very serious policy toward Pakistan,” said C. Christine Fair, the provost’s distinguished associate professor in the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University. […]

Amid Factional Conflicts, the Regime Prepares to Reclaim Eastern Ghouta

By Hasan Arfeh

Nothing after May 15, 2017 was as it had been before. It began with the operations to remove opposition fighters and residents from the Damascus neighborhood of Qaboun, in accordance with the agreement between the Syrian regime’s forces and the factions that oppose it. The neighborhood, which lies northeast of the capital, is considered the […]