Content

Issue Brief

May 18, 2015

A transatlantic approach to Europe’s east: relaunching the Eastern Partnership

By Fran Burwell

On May 20-21, 2015, European leaders will gather for the Eastern Partnership summit in Riga, Latvia, to discuss the future of Europe’s East. Given the extreme challenges faced by the countries of the Eastern Partnership (EaP) since the last summit, in Vilnius, Lithuania in 2013, and the cooling of EU relations with several of the […]

Northern Europe

Issue Brief

May 8, 2015

Beyond Camp David: A gradualist strategy to upgrade the US-Gulf security partnership

By Bilal Y. Saab and Barry Pavel

President Barack Obama’s summit meeting with Gulf leaders at Camp David on May 14 will end in failure if the administration does not propose a substantial upgrade in US-Gulf security relations that is as bold and strategically significant as the nuclear agreement–and likely formal deal–with Iran. While the summit will not suddenly eliminate mistrust and […]

Report

May 7, 2015

Harnessing social impact investing

By Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center

The solutions for socioeconomic development are no longer only in the public sector. Latin America has changed dramatically over the last decade, and the private sector can play an increasingly important role in the region’s progress. That’s where social impact investing comes in—a way that investors can make money while doing social good. The White […]

Report

May 4, 2015

NATO transformation seminar

NATO is confronting the most rapid negative change in its security environment since its founding, compelling Allies to refocus on collective defense in Europe and re-examine the relevance of NATO’s strategy. While this effort started in advance of NATO’s previous summit in Wales, the Alliance’s latest adaptation has only just begun. The crises of today […]

NATO Security & Defense

Issue Brief

Apr 27, 2015

Reimagining Pakistan’s militia policy

By Yelena Biberman

If ever a turning point seemed inevitable in Pakistan’s militia policy, it was in the aftermath of the Peshawar school massacre in December 2014. Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) killed 152 people, 133 of them children, in the bloodiest terrorist attack in Pakistan’s history. The carnage sparked an unprecedented national dialogue about the costs and contradictions of […]

Arms Control Conflict

Report

Apr 27, 2015

Young professionals day 2015 report

By Atlantic Council

The Atlantic Council, in partnership with NATO Allied Command Transformation (ACT), held the 4th annual Young Professionals Day (YP Day) in Washington, DC, on March 24. The event featured a full-day, outcome-oriented, strategic design thinking exercise with sixty young professionals representing twenty-four of NATO’s twenty-eight member nations. Delegates collaborated to produce a list of creative […]

Issue Brief

Apr 27, 2015

Defeating the jihadists in Syria: Competition before confrontation

By Faysal Itani

Since August 2014, the US-led air campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) has successfully inflicted casualties on ISIS and weakened its oil revenues. However, the same efforts have also accelerated the rise of the Nusra Front, an al-Qaeda affiliate, and the near-collapse of nationalist rebel forces. In “Defeating the Jihadists in […]

Syria Terrorism

Atlantic Council Strategy Paper Series

Apr 22, 2015

Dynamic stability: US strategy for a world in transition

By Barry Pavel, Peter Engelke, and Alex Ward

We have entered a new era in world history, a post-post-Cold War era that holds both great promise and great peril for the United States, its allies, and everyone else. This era calls for a new approach to national strategy called "dynamic stability."

Politics & Diplomacy Security & Defense

Books

Apr 21, 2015

Is Authoritarianism Staging a Comeback?

By Mathew Burrows and Maria J. Stephen

About the Book:The world is in the throes of a nearly decade-long global democratic recession. Democratic breakdowns in strategically important countries like Russia, Pakistan, Egypt, and Venezuela are cause for serious concern, as are reversals in Turkey and Hungary. Using a combination of repression and noncoercive tools, governments are shutting down space for civil society […]

Issue Brief

Apr 21, 2015

Tunisia’s new constitutional court

By Duncan Pickard

January 2014 became a milestone of Arab democracy when Tunisia adopted the first democratic Arab constitution drafted outside the influence of the military or a foreign power. In “Tunisia’s New Constitutional Court,” Duncan Pickard, a Nonresident Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, takes up the next step for the […]

Democratic Transitions Human Rights