Content

MENASource

May 29, 2014

Top News: Obama Points to Yemen Campaign, Announces $5 billion Counterterrorism Fund

By MENASource

President Barack Obama highlighted the Yemen campaign against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in his foreign-policy speech yesterday, pledging to train the Arab nation’s army to help it fight the militants. Obama said yesterday that he will set up a fund of as much as $5 billion to help US allies fight terrorism, and […]

AfricaSource

May 29, 2014

Bronwyn Bruton on Boko Haram

By Bronwyn Bruton

On April 14, 2014, more than 200 female students were kidnapped from a school in Nigeria. In May, news of that kidnapping went viral. In a series of videos, Deputy Director Bronwyn Bruton discusses why the social media response to the event has been so huge, its short- and long-term implications, as well as the […]

Conflict Extremism

MENASource

May 29, 2014

Top News: Egypt’s Sisi Wins Presidential Election

By EgyptSource

Former Egyptian army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi won a landslide victory in a presidential election on Thursday but a low turnout may have deprived him of the strong mandate he needs to fix the economy and face down an Islamist insurgency.

MENASource

May 29, 2014

Egypt Will Greet New President with Economic Crises

By Mohsin Khan

As Egypt concludes its latest presidential election, its new leader will have no choice but to address the country’s looming and deep-seated economic woes. With macroeconomic indicators tanking since the uprising in 2011, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi–all but officially announced as the winner of the top post–will have to grapple with rising inflation, widespread unemployment, […]

North Africa
Locked Shields is the largest international cyber exercise in the world

NATOSource

May 28, 2014

Estonia Exercise Shows NATO’s Growing Worry About Cyber Attacks

By Peter Apps, Reuters

With more than 300 participants and teams from 17 nations, organizers said it [Estonia’s Locked Shields cyber exercise] was the largest international cyber maneuver yet mounted, simulating an attack on a fictional nation called “Berylia” by a 50-strong team of computer experts.

China Cybersecurity
President Barack Obama hands a diploma to one of about 1,000 graduating cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, on May 28. Obama’s commencement address is one of several the White House plans to lay out his foreign policy vision for the remainder of his term in office. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

New Atlanticist

May 28, 2014

Obama Updates Security Strategy for a Changing World

By Barry Pavel

President, at West Point, Signals a Shift Toward Partnerships in Fighting Terrorism While there was much continuity in President Barack Obama’s West Point speech today, at least three new emphases represent an administration that is both learning the foreign and defense policy lessons of its tenure as well as reappraising where the world is headed […]

US Marines during a mission in Helmand, April 28, 2014

NATOSource

May 28, 2014

US and NATO to Hammer Out Postwar Afghanistan Plan Next Week

By Carlo Muñoz, US Naval Institute

Western European military leaders and their counterparts in Washington will convene next week to hammer out the details of the White House’s recently unveiled postwar plan for Afghanistan.

Afghanistan International Security Assistance Force

New Atlanticist

May 28, 2014

EU’s Strengthened Political Parties May Soon Be the ‘Leading Instrument’ of Putin’s Europe Policy

By New Atlanticist

Now that Europeans have given more seats in their continental parliament to the far-right and far-left parties that want to significantly weaken the European Union, there will be some changes in Brussels, writes Damon Wilson in a posting today. “Will the EU Vote Bury Foreign Policy?” asks Judy Dempsey, European affairs analyst at Carnegie Europe, […]

Elections Europe & Eurasia

MENASource

May 28, 2014

Syria: President Obama At West Point

By Frederic C. Hof

In his graduation ceremony remarks of May 28 at the United States Military Academy, President Obama implied an explicit new policy direction with respect to Syria. The president announced that he would call on Congress “to support a new Counter-Terrorism Partnership Fund of up to $5 billion, which will allow us to train, build capacity, […]

Syria

SouthAsiaSource

May 28, 2014

Can Modi boost complex India-US ties?

By Robert A. Manning

Narendra Modi’s historic, landslide victory has raised hopes that the man himself and his BJP can, in power, revive India’s sputtering economy and rejuvenate a disillusioned and rudderless US-India relationship.  It seems ages ago now, but only a few years ago India and China were spoken of in the same breath as the dynamic, rising […]

Elections India