Category: Blogs

Syria at Four Years

By Frederic C. Hof

In March 2011 Bashar al-Assad elected to respond to peaceful protests against police brutality with lethal violence. Was this a choice he made freely and consciously? Or was he obliged by his security chieftains to beat, shoot, incarcerate, and torture protesters?

US Sending 3,000 Troops to Baltic Allies

By Jon Harper, Stars and Stripes

Thousands of troops and major hardware from the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division are heading to the Baltic region to reassure NATO allies

Sweden Plans to Increase Military Spending

By Wall Street Journal and AFP

From Charlie Duxbury, Wall Street Journal:  The Nordic state has seen its airspace violated by Russian military jets on a number of occasions and the appearance of a mystery foreign submarine in Swedish waters last fall further raised tensions.

Sweden Sending Troops to Strategic Baltic Island Amid Russia Tensions

By Richard Milne, Financial Times

Sweden will put troops back on the strategic Baltic Sea island of Gotland after a decade-long absence as increased sabre-rattling from Russia unnerves the region.

Defending Italy from the Islamic State

By James Stavridis, Washington Post

Following the decapitation of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians by radical Islamists professing an allegiance to the Islamic State, the Italian government has begun ramping up efforts to defend its territory from attack. How realistic is this threat? And what should Italy do?

US Foreign Policy Falls Victim to Partisan Gridlock Ahead of 2016 Elections

By Larry Luxner

Atlantic Council launches strategy initiative to boost Washington’s global influence With the 2016 presidential elections a little over a year and a half away, analysts agree that the partisan bitterness consuming Washington is hurting US leadership on the world stage. That bitterness reached a new low in March when a group of 47 Republican senators […]

Q&A: Egypt Launches the First Day of its Economic Conference

Egypt launched its three day economic conference in Sharm al-Sheikh on Friday, with thirty heads of state in attendance. In the first day, over $13 billion in aid was pledged to Egypt, the bulk of which has come from the Gulf countries of UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait. Find out more about the first day […]

US Policy in Yemen: Creating Leverage

By Nabeel Khoury

In case there were still any doubts about Iran’s growing influence in Yemen, Tehran put that issue to rest with a hostage rescue operation last week, a pledge to provide the Houthis with a year’s worth of oil and electricity, and newly established daily commercial flights between Tehran and Sana’a.

Top News: Iran Promises Houthis Two Years’ Worth of Oil

By MENASource

Iran will provide Yemen with oil and electricity, a Houthi delegation returning from a two-week visit to Tehran announced on Thursday, although it remains unclear if the supply would reach areas outside the control of Houthi militia.