Category: Blogs

The Baltic Way

By Damon Wilson

A Scenesetter for the Meeting of US-Baltic Presidents As President Obama prepares to meet the three Baltic presidents on Friday, I am reminded of standing on the floor of the Riigikogu in the summer of 1992:  as I watched Estonia’s restored parliament conduct business amidst the political jostling in the run-up to the nation’s first […]

US Strike on Syria Could Be Prelude to Diplomacy

By Barbara Slavin

It’s hard to accuse the Barack Obama administration of being trigger happy.   While Obama has been willing to use force to kill Taliban and al-Qaida militants, he has studiously avoided embroiling the United States in another war in the Middle East or South Asia.   The apparent U.S. decision to strike Syria for what […]

Fighting Lions and Brothers in Mansoura

By Eric Knecht

In the summer of 2011 Sayed al-Essawi, an Egyptian man claiming superhuman strength, briefly made international news when he challenged a lion to a death match. The bout—which al-Essawi described as a means to revive Egyptian tourism and prove that man is stronger than lion—was anticlimactic. With cameras rolling, Essawi shuffled around an oversized cage […]

Turkey may Open İncirlik Base for NATO Mission in Syria

By Murat Yetkin, Hurriyet Daily News

Turkey may open its strategic İncirlik air base for possible military operations into neighboring Syria, if the Western defense alliance NATO decides for an intervention in the ongoing civil war, a ranking Turkish official told the Hürriyet Daily News on Aug. 26.

Top News: Egypt Backs Away from Plan to Dissolve Muslim Brotherhood

By EgyptSource

Egypt should not ban the Muslim Brotherhood or exclude it from politics after the army’s overthrow of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi, the interim prime minister said on Tuesday, reversing his previous stated view.

Is Libya Finally Walking the Walk?

By Karim Mezran

Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zidan has announced the launch of a national dialogue initiative to address some of the most important challenges hindering the country’s progress toward a pluralistic and transparent political system.

Consent and Legitimacy

By David Johnson

This article should begin with the explicit acknowledgement that the author, as you might have guessed on seeing the byline, is not Egyptian. Thus, it is inherently that much more dangerous, as an outsider, to speak about what it seems the Egyptian people want. Of course, given the limited extent of public opinion polling in […]

NATO Condemns Use of Chemical Weapons and Warns that ‘Those Responsible must be Held Accountable’

By Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO

The North Atlantic Council has just discussed the situation in Syria and in particular the horrific use of chemical weapons around Damascus on 21 August.

Obama Hosts Baltic Presidents This Week

On Friday, August 30, US President Barack Obama will host the presidents of the three Baltic states: Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Latvian President Andris Bērziņš, and Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė. Atlantic Council Executive Vice President Damon Wilson discusses the significance of the visit and the expected topics on the agenda.