Category: Timely Commentary & Analysis

Venezuela on the Edge: The Time for New International Action

By Sara H. Van Velkinburgh

Since the beginning of 2017, thousands of Venezuelans have taken to the streets to protest the government’s repressive policies and worsening economic and humanitarian crisis. Following a massive referendum on July 16 in which millions of Venezuelans voted against a constituent assembly to rewrite the constitution, the international community is again considering its next move. […]

Fried Testifies Before the Helsinki Commission on Kleptocrats of the Kremlin: Ties between Business and Power in Russia

Watch the Testimony

Lessons From Brazil: Crisis, Corruption, and Global Cooperation

By Sebastian Maag Pardo

Corruption scandals continue to shake Latin America´s political landscape, but several institutions and anti-corruption movements have risen to the challenge. Across the region, vigorous investigations have implicated elite circles of business and politics –deemed untouchable– in major graft cases. Unprecedented in scale and impact, Brazil´s Lava Jato probe stands as the centerpiece of this new […]

Russia Sanctions Revisited

By Becca Hunziker

On Wednesday, July 19, the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center hosted Daniel Yergin, Ambassador Richard Morningstar, Ambassador Daniel Fried, Jeffrey Turner, and David Mortlock for a discussion about the Russia sanctions bill making its way through Congress. The discussion was moderated by Global Energy Center Associate Director Ellen Scholl. The event opened with remarks from […]

Central Asia: US Foreign Policy at a Great Power Crossroads

By Samantha Blond

Fostering prosperity and security in Central Asia should be a priority for the Trump administration as the region’s economic and democratic potential increases, former assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs Nisha Biswal remarked at the Atlantic Council on July 18. In previous years, the five Central Asian countries—Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, […]

Cyber Risk Monday: The Darkening Web

By Kenneth Miller

Ransomware attacks crippling business operations and threatening human lives around the globe; accusations of Russian interference in Western elections; reported US sabotage of North Korean missiles. No single invention of the last few decades has so fundamentally changed the nature of political conflict as the Internet, which is increasingly used as a weapon by actors eager to exploit or curtail global connectivity in order to further their interests. This Atlantic Council discussion examined the consequences of the battle for cyberspace among nation states and non-state actors alike, threatening not only our personal data but human lives, global stability, and the fundamentals of the Internet as we know it today.

Report launch: Sudan: a strategy for re-engagement

By Africa Center

On July 14, 2017, the Atlantic Council’s Sudan Task Force launched its latest report, Sudan: A Strategy for Re-Engagement by Ambassador Mary Carlin Yates with Kelsey Lilley. Atlantic Council Vice President and Africa Center Director Dr. J. Peter Pham welcomed attendees and introduced the panel’s work. The panel, which included Task Force members Ambassador Mary […]