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UkraineAlert

May 4, 2015

Ukraine Debt Deal Could Spark Chain Reaction

By Yuri Poluneev

Ukraine’s economy is in crisis. Experts warn that the country’s gross domestic product could shrink by 6 to 12 percent and inflation could exceed 40 percent in 2015, although one prominent economist put that figure in triple digits already. The war in eastern Ukraine has throttled the country’s industrial capacity. To prevent the country from […]

Russia Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin, May 1, 2015

NATOSource

May 4, 2015

US Officials Reveal Russia Increasing Control Over Militants in Ukraine

By Bradley Klapper and Ken Dilanian, AP

American officials briefed on intelligence from the region say Russia has significantly deepened its command and control of the militants in eastern Ukraine in recent months, leading the U.S. to quietly introduce a new term: “combined Russian-separatist forces.”

Russia Ukraine

MENASource

May 4, 2015

US Role in GCC Security: Lessons from the Taiwan Case

By Robert A. Manning

The upcoming Camp David Summit with nervous Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) leaders has the Obama administration casting about for ways to enhance security assurances.

International Organizations Iran

New Atlanticist

May 4, 2015

The British are Voting: Here’s What You Need to Know

By Ashish Kumar Sen

‘It is not important that Britain is not important,’ says Atlantic Council’s Dungan If one thing is nearly certain about Britain’s general elections May 7, it is that they will produce no clear victor and, as a result, could lead to another coalition government—or even a hung Parliament. British Prime Minister David Cameron is leading […]

United Kingdom
Swedish soldiers training, Aug. 25, 2013

NATOSource

May 4, 2015

Nations Around Baltic Sea Increasing Defense Spending

By Charles Duxbury, Christina Zander, and Juhana Rossi, Wall Street Journal

After Russia grabbed a piece of the Black Sea coast from Ukraine and ramped up its marine and air force exercises on and over the Baltic, the other eight countries with a piece of that sea’s shoreline have realized that this backwater isn’t as placid as it was.

NATO Northern Europe

AfricaSource

May 4, 2015

Nile Accord Opens Opportunity

By J. Peter Pham

Amid the attention recently focused on the Nigerian presidential election and the resulting democratic transition in Africa’s most populous country as well as on the brutal al-Shabaab terrorist attack on Kenya’s Garissa University College, an equally momentous event that took place at roughly the same time passed relatively unremarked. On March 23, the leaders of […]

Ethiopia North Africa

MENASource

May 4, 2015

Top News: US Religious Commission Categorizes Egypt as ‘Country of Particular Concern’

By EgyptSource

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom for the fifth year in a row is recommending that the State Department categorize Egypt as a “country of particular concern” subject to sanctions. The Obama administration has repeatedly ignored that advice, and even those lawmakers most invested in the issue of religious freedom hope to keep it […]

MENASource

May 4, 2015

Top News: Saudi-Led Troops in Yemen

By MENASource

At least twenty troops from a Saudi-led Arab coalition came ashore Sunday in the southern port city of Aden on what military officials called a “reconnaissance” mission, as fighting raged between Houthi rebels and forces loyal to the nation’s exiled President Abdrabbo Mansour Hadi.

MENASource

May 4, 2015

EconSource: ISIS Again Pushing to Capture Iraq Refinery at Baiji

By EconSource

Islamic State militants (ISIS or ISIL) took control of half Iraq’s largest oil refinery over the weekend and cut supply lines to the 150 or so government troops who were holding out inside the facility.

MENASource

May 4, 2015

Tunisia Walking a Tightrope

By Karim Mezran and Lara Talverdian

Whether one speaks to a taxi driver, a bureaucrat, an activist, or a politician, Tunisians agree: their country’s two primary challenges are security and the economy. During a research trip to Tunis in April, all of those interviewed unequivocally cited these interlinked concerns in response to questions about Tunisia’s obstacles.

North Africa
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