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UkraineAlert

Mar 28, 2018

Ukraine’s Glaring National Security Gap that No One Has Heard Of

By Anders Åslund

My article about Ukraine’s new electricity tariffs aroused quite a few interesting comments, which deserve responses. Since these comments are private and many from people in high positions, I shall not mention their names. The arguments circle around pricing, ownership, privatization, investment, and taxation. The natural start is ownership. No one favors state enterprises. They […]

Ukraine

New Atlanticist

Mar 28, 2018

Kissing the ring: Kim pledges denuclearization after meeting with China’s Xi

By Robert A. Manning

Overnight, China ended the mystery and intrigue of its secret visitor: Yes, it was North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, making his first foreign trip to Beijing. While there, Kim pledged a commitment to North Korean denuclearization. Kim said: “It is our consistent stand to be committed to denuclearization in accordance with the will of […]

China Korea

MENASource

Mar 28, 2018

Goodbye

By Frederic C. Hof

As Easter Sunday dawns, my tenure as Director of the Rafik Hariri Center ends, along with my fulltime affiliation with the Atlantic Council. Leaving behind a Hariri Center team that personifies grace, diligence, decency, expertise, initiative, and collegiality will not be easy: it is the finest group of people with whom I have worked in […]

SyriaSource

Mar 28, 2018

Leaving

By Frederic C. Hof

When I joined the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center in late 2012, I had one goal: to build a Syria program that could, from outside government, do that which I had failed to do on the inside. I wanted to persuade senior officials that a drifting Syria policy left unchanneled would facilitate human suffering on […]

Syria

UkraineAlert

Mar 27, 2018

Good to Be King: Ukraine’s Fugitive Oligarch Blocks Reforms and Benefits from International Handouts While Under House Arrest

By Oleksandr Kharchenko

Corruption is still a major challenge in Ukraine, and the energy sector is particularly vulnerable to illegal activity. But although it is tempting to view corruption as a problem indigenous to Ukraine, outside actors—sometimes tolerated or even supported by the government in Kyiv—play a leading role in perpetuating corruption inside Ukraine. A key illustration of […]

Ukraine

SyriaSource

Mar 27, 2018

The Risks the White Helmets in Eastern Ghouta Take to Save Lives

By Maher Al-Hamdan

As of March 22, 2018, the Syrian Civil Defense (or White Helmets) lost ten of its members in the Damascus countryside during Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s recent campaign on Eastern Ghouta. According to Siraj Mahmoud, the official spokesman for the Civil Defense, ten volunteers were killed in Eastern Ghouta, including Mohammed Qasim Masarwa, one of […]

Syria

EnergySource

Mar 27, 2018

Toward bipartisan climate solutions

By Kayla Soren

Climate change is increasingly on the agenda for millennial conservatives. In late February, a bipartisan coalition of thirty-four student groups from around the country—twenty-three of which are College Republican chapters—launched Students for Carbon Dividends (S4CD). S4CD advocates for the Baker-Shultz carbon dividend, a policy proposal that would impose a carbon tax of $40 per ton, […]

Energy Markets & Governance Energy Transitions

IranSource

Mar 27, 2018

How Iran Might Respond to the US Abrogating the Nuclear Deal

By Sina Azodi

President Trump has threatened to unilaterally withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in May if his demands for “fixing” the deal are not met by Britain, France and Germany (the E3). Iran has categorically rejected any amendments to the nuclear agreement and has argued that it has a range of options to respond […]

SyriaSource

Mar 26, 2018

Taking a Stand in Syria

By Frederic C. Hof

It is not difficult to discern the drift of most commentary on Syria these days: Bashar al-Assad has all-but-defeated the seven-year uprising against him; so, ‘get used to it.’ A corollary of the argument is often some variation of ‘Let Russia own it.’ Can these expressions of resigned defiance form the basis of a constructive […]

Syria

New Atlanticist

Mar 26, 2018

The President’s Scorecard

By Mirette F. Mabrouk

Egyptians are going to the polls to vote in a presidential election for the third time since the uprisings of 2011. The act of voting for a president who could, ostensibly, be voted out was a novelty. Hosni Mubarak served five six-year terms before stepping down in February of 2011, and Egyptians were keen on […]

North Africa
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