Category: Blogs

Ukraine’s New Government: Here’s What to Expect

By New Atlanticist

Amid Horse-Trading by Poroshenko and Yatsenyuk, a New Parliament Speaker Is Likely The Atlantic Council’s Kyiv-based senior fellow, Brian Mefford, writes on the likely makeup of Ukraine’s post-election government. His key observations are below, and you can read his detailed analysis on his own blog.

Ennahda Loses in Tunisia: What Comes Next?

By Duncan Pickard and Daniel Tavana

The transfer of power has been a confounding challenge in modern Arab politics. Tunisia’s success is again the exception. Last year, Tunisia’s Ennahda became the first Islamist party in the Arab world to step down peacefully, part of a package compromise with secular opposition parties to adopt the constitution.

Top News: ISIS Beheads Eight Rebels Who Surrendered Under False Amnesty Deal

ISIS group jihadists beheaded eight rebels who had surrendered in a town on the border with Iraq last week despite pledges of an amnesty, a monitor said Monday.

Top News: Prosecutor Orders Detention of Thirty-five for Islamic State Affiliations

By EgyptSource

Egypt’s prosecutor-general has ordered the detention of thirty-five suspects accused of joining terrorist organizations, pending fifteen days further investigation.

As Russian Provocations Increase, Should the US Continue to Cut Forces in Europe?

By Jorge Benitez, The Hill

Last week, jets from six NATO air forces intercepted 19 Russian military aircraft in just one day.

What Would the Turkish Buffer Zone Mean for Syria’s Displaced?

By Matthew Hall, a Q&A with Elizabeth Ferris

In September, the radical jihadist group ISIS launched a major offensive in northeastern Syria, overrunning scores of Kurdish villages along the warpath to Kobani, a strategic town on the Turkish border.

EconSource: Egypt Signs $350 Million Financing Deal With Saudi Arabia

By EconSource

Egypt signed a $350 million financing agreement with Saudi Arabia on Saturday, November 1. The money is aimed at upgrading the country’s power grid and securing imports of petroleum products. Egypt is currently facing its worst energy crisis in decades.

Russian-Ukraine Gas Deal Gives Moscow the Leverage and Europe the Energy

By John E. Herbst

Ukrainians Will Get Gas, Too, But Their Cost and Risk of Cutoffs Remain High European Union leaders in Brussels may be celebrating the gas deal signed Thursday between Ukraine and Russia as an assurance of Russian gas supplies to Europe this winter, but Ukrainians can at best take cold comfort from the agreement. EU Energy […]

Ukraine, ISIS Wars Increase Europe’s Risks in the Western Balkans

By James Rupert

Albania’s Defense Minister: NATO, EU Should Focus on Dangers in Five Ex-Yugoslav States Europe’s peace is at risk from the wars in Ukraine, Syria and Iraq—and nowhere more than in the Balkans, where several states of the former Yugoslavia form the weakest spot in Europe’s security structures.

NATO’s Next Crisis Likely to be Cyber-Driven

By Leo Cendrowicz, Guardian

It’s been a busy week in the skies above Europe’s periphery, as Nato has repeatedly scrambled jets to track “unusual” sorties by Russian bombers.