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Former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani attends Iran's Assembly of Experts' biannual meeting in Tehran March 8, 2011. Rafsanjani lost his position on Tuesday as head of an important state clerical body after hardliners criticised him for being too close to the reformist opposition. REUTERS/Raheb Homavandi (IRAN - Tags: POLITICS)

IranSource

Jan 9, 2017

What does the death of Rafsanjani mean for Iran’s political landscape?

By SHAHIR SHAHIDSALESS

Iran’s former president, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, died on January 8. (Reuters/Raheb Homavandi) Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the pragmatic centrist former president of Iran, who died Jan. 8 after a heart attack, was one of the pillars of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution and the establishment of the Islamic Republic.

SyriaSource

Jan 9, 2017

The Water War in Damascus

By Youssef Sadaki

Battles have erupted in recent weeks between regime forces and rebels in the area of Ain al-Fijah and neighboring villages, causing the water pumps and the area’s main Ain al-Fijah water facility to cease operation.

Syria

SyriaSource

Jan 6, 2017

The Consequences of Merger Talks among Syrian Rebels

By Haid Haid

The internal divisions among rebel groups in eastern Aleppo and their infighting during the recent Syrian regime’s offensive led to a poor military performance and helped the latter to recapture the rest of the city. Protests erupted, as a result, in many opposition-held areas, condemning rebels’ mistakes and demanding them to unite. Many rebel fighters […]

Syria

SyriaSource

Jan 6, 2017

Ceasefire in Syria: Good News?

By Frederic C. Hof

Turkey and Russia are struggling to sustain a Syrian ceasefire. The Assad regime and a range of nationalist, Turkish-supported rebel organizations are supposed to stop shooting. Excluded from the terms are Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (formerly the Nusra Front), the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), and Islamic State (ISIL, ISIS, Daesh). If the ceasefire somehow takes […]

Syria
Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at Warsaw Summit, July 6, 2016

NATOSource

Jan 5, 2017

10 Most Popular NATO Stories of 2016

By Jorge Benitez, Director of NATOSource

2016 was full of major developments in European security. Moscow’s campaign against the Western democracies went beyond the DNC hack and interference in the US elections.

Cybersecurity Germany

New Atlanticist

Jan 5, 2017

ISIS Puts Turkey in its Crosshairs

By Rachel Ansley

Though Turkey’s engagement in the war in Syria has resulted in a series of attacks by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) over the course of the past year, the most recent attack on a nightclub in Istanbul on New Year’s Day will only harden the Turkish government’s resolve to defeat the Islamist […]

Syria Turkey

New Atlanticist

Jan 5, 2017

A Stubborn Yahya Jammeh Drives The Gambia Toward a Crisis

By Kelsey Lilley

Celebrations in the Gambia after opposition candidate Adama Barrow ousted longtime President Yahya Jammeh in the momentous December presidential elections have been short-lived. The optimism spurred on by Jammeh’s concession to Barrow a day after election results were announced was soon tempered by his course reversal: on December 9, the eccentric president of twenty-two years […]

New Atlanticist

Jan 4, 2017

Latvia Heads Into 2017 Relying On Its Own Mettle—And NATO Metal

By Teri Schultz

‘Channeling Brussels’ with Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkēvičs While the entire world carefully watches how 2017 unfolds, especially developments between the White House and the Kremlin, the Baltics are among those with the most finely-tuned binoculars.  Worst-case scenarios may be simply hypotheses for debate in other countries, but in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania they are […]

NATO Northern Europe

New Atlanticist

Jan 4, 2017

In the DRC, Joseph Kabila Kicks the Can Down the Road

By Ashish Kumar Sen

Joseph Kabila, the president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), is unlikely to abide by the terms of an agreement that aims to end his fifteen-year rule and ensure the DRC’s first-ever democratic transition of power, said J. Peter Pham, director of the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center. “Miracles can happen and I guess, […]

Democratic Republic of the Congo

MENASource

Jan 4, 2017

The Case for Wider US Engagement in Libya

By Karim Mezran

As the situation on the ground in Libya continues to deteriorate, many fear a complete descent into chaos. The successful operation against the Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL) in Sirte—formally conducted under the authority of the UN-sponsored and Tripoli-based Government of National Agreement (GNA)—but largely dominated by the Misrata militias, put the latter in close […]

Libya
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