Category: Timely Commentary & Analysis

Intelligence reform for peacetime – A call to reform and modernize the Afghan intelligence services

By Tamim Asey

The United States, as it pushes for a political settlement and withdraws its troops from Afghanistan, needs to leave a credible and professional Afghan intelligence partner behind with whom it must partner for counter-terrorism (CT) missions post-withdrawal.

Happy St Pats to Ireland: Boom, bust, and recovery for Europe’s most resilient

By GeoEconomics Center

This week, the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center dressed in green and took a moment to reflect on the Irish economy, one of the most resilient in the European Union.

Fontenrose testifies to House Foreign Affairs Committee on human rights in Saudi Arabia

By Kirsten Fontenrose

Middle East Security Director, Kirsten Fontenrose testifies to House Foreign Affairs Committee on human rights in Saudi Arabia.

Event recap | Coordinating data privacy and the public interest

By the GeoTech Center

Data usage and the employment of data trusts has maximized individual privacy and private sector benefits. Both the government and the private sector are working towards developing strategies that emphasize individual privacy more than ever before, as the public continues to express greater interest in protecting their data. However, few institutions have landed upon successful solutions in practice that can protect user privacy while allowing for the high levels of analysis they have come to expect. As our digital landscape continues to evolve, panelists in this episode of the GeoTech Hour discuss intentional policy and design choices that could allow for greater data ownership within people-centered structures.

State of the Order: Assessing February 2021

The State of the Order breaks down the month's most important events impacting the democratic world order.

Revitalize NATO’s grand strategy: NATO 20/2020 podcast

By Ambassador Timo Koster and Ivanka Barzashka

Collective strategic analysis is the pathway to a more inclusive, transparent, and systematic process for creating NATO’s next strategic concept.

The United Nations Security Council needs to authorize military action to prevent the spill of the FSO SAFER

By Dr. Ian Ralby, Rohini Ralby, and Dr. David Soud

The FSO SAFER and the five miles of subsea pipeline to which it is attached threaten to pour 2.14 million barrels of oil into the Red Sea. Between Yemen’s reliance on food shipments to stem a widespread famine, and the wider region’s reliance on desalination plants for drinking water, realistic estimates put the potential death toll from the spill in the millions.

These three baseload technologies are critical to achieving zero-carbon electric vehicles

By Bryant Jones

As electricity demand swells as the electric vehicle market grows, it is unlikely that short-term battery storage, intermittent renewables, and efficiency improvements alone can provide all of the necessary electrons. These technologies need to be paired with distributed, zero-carbon baseload capacity, and the debate about what technologies can meet anticipated demand is just beginning. Cue geothermal, hydroelectric, and nuclear power.