Category: Timely Commentary & Analysis

Senators McCain, Durbin Push Congress to Sanction Russia

US Senate leaders John McCain [R-AZ] and Dick Durbin [D-IL] urged Congress to pass quickly – within a week – strong economic sanctions against Russia for its armed seizure of Crimea from Ukraine. In a conference call hosted by the Atlantic Council with journalists and council members, Durbin and McCain, both members of the Senate […]

Youth Activism in the Gulf States: Breaking Taboos

The rise of social media has had a profound effect on youth throughout the world, but in the Gulf in particular this new outlet for information exchange has created a space for activism that was impossible until now. On March 21, 2014, the Atlantic Council launched a new issue brief, “Breaking Taboos: Youth Activism in the […]

Is the Indian Nuclear Tiger Changing Its Stripes?

Data, Interpretation, and Fact A central question within the current nuclear discourse is whether or not India has fundamentally altered the manner in which it has traditionally conducted nuclear business. Dr. Gaurav Kampani of the Norwegian Institute of Defense Studies and Toby Dalton, Deputy Director of the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for […]

Afghanistan: Top US Official Says Corruption May Ruin a Fragile ‘Reconstruction’

Uncontrolled corruption in Afghanistan could cost the United States what fragile progress it has made in the most expensive reconstruction of another country it has ever attempted, according to the most senior US official monitoring that program. As the Obama administration prepares to end the longest war of US history, it is relying on reconstruction […]

Crafting Public Diplomacy for an Urbanized World

On March 20, the Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security, in partnership with the US Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, hosted a roundtable focusing on the future of public diplomacy in the context of global trends. Titled Crafting Public Diplomacy for an Urbanized World, the roundtable examined how the US government, through public […]

NATO Secretary General Discusses Ukraine Crisis, Wales Summit with the Atlantic Council

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen discussed the crisis in Ukraine and the preparations for the upcoming NATO summit in Wales with members of the Atlantic Council and the Washington, DC security and policy community in a working breakfast on March 19, 2014. The event was moderated by Frederick Kempe, president and CEO of the […]

Charting NATO’s Next Chapter: From Afghanistan to Ukraine and Beyond

As NATO charts plans for its coming drawdown in Afghanistan and its future beyond the 2014 Summit, Russia will loom large on NATO’s agenda as the unfolding crisis in Ukraine alters US and European strategies. At the same time, NATO must confront a dearth of political and financial investment, threats emanating from Asia, the Middle […]

Amid Russia’s Assault, Ukraine’s New Government Focuses on Reform

By Sabine Freizer

While Russia’s takeover of Crimea has dealt a heavy blow in Kyiv, the young Ukrainian government is nonetheless pressing to pass large-scale reforms. Late last week, deputy education minister Inna Sovsun sighed in frustration as she described layers of corruption in a school system where apparently everything had been up for sale. Under President Viktor […]

Geopolitics 101: History Matters

By Harlan Ullman

As President Vladimir Putin moves to consolidate Russian autonomy over Crimea with a referendum, the West continues to struggle to find acceptable policies to reverse or punish this encroachment. Short of a military response that would be profoundly reckless and exceedingly dangerous, in these policy deliberations by the West led by Washington, history seems to […]