Category: Timely Commentary & Analysis

Waiting for the Great Gas Cutoff

By John Roberts

Russia-Ukraine Crisis Is Now Unlikely to Let Russian Gas Keep Flowing Smoothly to Europe  European countries from Germany and Poland to Italy and Turkey now need to ensure they have emergency plans in place to deal with a possible cut-off of Russian gas supplies. At risk are the roughly one-fifth of their supplies delivered via […]

Bitcoin and the Future of Currency

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Pinning down exactly what Bitcoin is like identifying Superman in old comics. Legal, financial, and political experts approach the issue from different angles—labeling Bitcoin into categories which established governments and institutions can understand and control. Meanwhile, technologists and innovators view virtual currencies as nothing less than a […]

Corporate Strategy Forum Discusses Next Military-Industrial Revolution

Three years into an “age of austerity” in Western military spending, expectations are building for a wave of restructuring in the defense industry, similar to what followed the end of the Cold War. Just as before, fundamental change to the context for international security is resetting customers’ expectations, investors’ outlooks, and, in turn, corporate strategies.

Discussion with Dr. Beate Merk

On April 10, the Atlantic Council’s Global Business and Economics Program hosted an off-the-record conversation with Dr. Beate Merk, Bavaria’s minister for European and International Affairs. Dr. Fran Burwell moderated the discussion between Dr. Merk and an esteemed group of government officials and business leaders, which touched upon key areas of divergence on ongoing Transatlantic […]

Turkey’s Future after Local Elections: A Conversation with Deputy Prime Minister Babacan

The Atlantic Council was delighted to host Ali Babacan, Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey for a small-circle, off-the-record lunch discussion.

Discussion with African Development Bank Presidential Candidate Birama B. Sidibé

American and European businesses are looking for avenues of investment in Africa, but are often stymied by the complexity and diversity of the continent’s national markets. As investor interest in the continent peeks, the African Development Bank (AfDB) has taken the lead in facilitating new investments on the continent. The Bank’s 2015 election of a […]

Angola’s Emerging Capital Markets

The economy of Angola is on the verge of a major transition: financial market regulations have been established, secondary debt markets are opening up, and a new stock exchange will be coming on line in 2016. This was part of the optimistic assessment presented by Vice Governor of National Bank of Angola Ricardo Viegas D’Abreu and […]

Why We Can Play the Long Game on Russia

By James Clad & Robert A. Manning

With the benefit of hindsight, the Russian annexation of Crimea shouldn’t have been a great surprise: it has been obvious to those who chose to look that for most of the last twenty years, that Russian president Vladimir Putin never fully accepted the USSR’s demise. Now, as the West agonizes over another possible irredentist feint—possibly […]