Category: Blogs

Sochi Olympics is a Cyber War Zone, Experts Warn

By Hannah Kuchler, Financial Times

Foreign visitors to the Winter Olympics in Sochi are unknowingly wading into a cyber battlefield, the US government and security experts have warned.

US-French Cyber Security Cooperation

By White House

The United States values working with France on cybersecurity, which is important for ensuring the vibrancy of our economies and enhancing our shared security.

A Threefold Regression of Knowledge, Information and Rational Thought

By Amr Hamzawy

The situation in Egypt since July 2013 has given rise to many negative phenomena, which defenders of democracy must dismantle, contain, confront or resist. One of the most significant of these phenomena has been a threefold regression: a regression in the value of knowledge, the declining importance of information and the marginalization of rational thought […]

Iran Revolution Commemoration Exposes Insecurity

By Barbara Slavin

Someday, Feb. 11 may be celebrated in Iran as a normal national holiday, akin to France’s Bastille Day or the US Fourth of July. Alas, judging from this year’s official festivities, the anniversary of the 1979 revolution remains the occasion for a show of propaganda rather than a reflection of Iran’s hard-won independence.

Top News: Regime Loyalists Seethe Over UN Aid Operation For Rebel Area

By MENASource

Regime loyalists in Homs voiced fury over a UN humanitarian relief mission for a rebel-held enclave in their city, accusing the organization of bias against minorities who support President Bashar al-Assad.

From ‘Least Diplomatic Diplomat,’ Salty Peek at Trans-Atlantic Strains

By Mark Landler, New York Times

Victoria J. Nuland, who is the assistant secretary of state for European affairs, summed up her feelings about the European Union in what she might have described in her previous job, as the State Department spokeswoman, as a “frank exchange of views” with the American ambassador to Ukraine.

NATO’s New Frontier

By Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Project Syndicate

An American ship sailing into a Spanish naval base this week is making history.

Dungan Comments on Hollande State Visit

Nicholas Dungan, a nonresident senior fellow with the Council’s Program on Transatlantic Relations, was interviewed recently about French President François Hollande’s visit to the United States. In the remarks below, Dungan illuminates the interplay of French and American politics, the impact of Syria on the transatlantic relationship, and how this state visit is viewed from both an […]

In Homs, UN Convoy Meets Syria’s Total War

By Alex Simon

By Syrian standards, the violence in the Old City of Homs this weekend was nothing out of the ordinary. Fourteen were killed and dozens injured as mortar shells and sniper fire targeted international vehicles seeking to evacuate civilians and deliver aid to thirteen neighborhoods that have been under government siege for nearly a year and […]