Category: Blogs

Can They Get Any Closer? The Case for Deepening the Partnerships Between Sweden and Finland with NATO

By Anna Wieslander

The dinner between Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, President Sauli Niinistö, and the Heads of States of NATO in Warsaw in July 2016, was a landmark in the partnership between Sweden, Finland and the Alliance.

Reclaiming Central Europe

By Maciej Kuziemski

Central Europe long served as an example of everything the European Union has craved—youthful energy, bold ideas, and unparalleled growth. Its countries have overcome Soviet rule more or less peacefully, but it didn’t happen instantaneously. The path toward democracy had been paved long before the collapse of communist regimes in the region in 1989. It […]

TTIP&TRADE in Action – October 12, 2016

By Global Business & Economics Program

Director of the Atlantic Council’s Global Business & Economics Program Andrea Montanino moderated a discussion on prosperity and growth with EU Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs Pierre Moscovici last week as part of the Atlantic Council’s conference “Stronger With Allies: The Future of Europe After Brexit“.Missed the event? Watch the webcast of the conference here.

What Ukraine Can Learn from Romania’s Fight against Graft

By Michael Druckman

In 2015, Romania got serious about its corruption problem. DNA, its aggressive anticorruption body, indicted 1,250 public officials, including the sitting prime minister. Five other ministers, twenty-one members of parliament, and Bucharest mayor Sorin Oprescu were indicted. The agency ordered the seizure of nearly half a billion euros. Romania is now perceived as less corrupt. […]

Turkey Purges NATO Military Envoys after Failed Coup

By Robin Emmott , Reuters

Turkey has fired hundreds of senior military staff serving at NATO in Europe and the United States following July’s coup attempt, documents show,

Behind Erdogan’s Dismissive Statements to Iraq’s Prime Minister

By Aaron Stein

Turkey’s Iraq policy changed considerably in the past half-decade. Turkey has implicitly broken with its “one Iraq” policy and, since 2010, has taken steps to deepen alliances with political actors, committed to the further decentralization—and, in the longer term, break-up—of the Iraqi state. This policy is a sharp departure from Turkey’s history of advocacy for […]

Georgia’s Ruling Party Triumphs in Elections. Now for the Hard Part.

By Laura Linderman

The pro-Western ruling party’s decisive victory in parliamentary elections in Georgia on October 8 is a reflection of voters’ preference for stability and staying the course.  The Georgia Dream-Democratic Georgia (GD) was followed in second place by the United National Movement (UNM), which was in power from 2003-2012. GD will need to work hard to […]

Russia’s Deployment of Nuclear Capable Missiles Near NATO Border Alarms Allies

By BBC, AP, and Reuters

From Jonathan Marcus, BBC:  Russia’s deployment of nuclear-capable missiles to its Kaliningrad exclave is setting off warning bells in the Baltics and at Nato.

Defending Europe Against Russia

Anders Fogh Rasmussen, a former secretary general of NATO, has some advice for European governments: invest more in defense in light of the threat posed by Russia. “I think more and more people understand that Russia has changed from being a strategic power to being a strategic challenge,” said Rasmussen. Rasmussen, who is also a […]

The Other Victims of the War in Ukraine

By Laura A. Dean

Ukraine has long been a country associated with human trafficking and the sexual exploitation of women, but recent reports of human trafficking as a consequence of the war in eastern Ukraine have brought a new urgency to this ongoing crisis. News articles tell chilling stories about slave labor camps, children’s brothels, drug couriers, drug couriers, […]