In-depth research and reports

The politics of pandemics: Evolving regime-opposition dynamics in the MENA region

By Frederick Kempe, Giampiero Massolo, Karim Mezran, Annalisa Perteghella, Emadeddin Badi, Yahia Mohamed Lamine Mestek, Hafsa Halawa, Abbas Kadhim, Gawdat Bahgat, Nadereh Chamlou

The politics of pandemics: Evolving regime-opposition dynamics in the MENA region.

Closing the accountability gap on human rights violators in the Islamic Republic of Iran through global litigation strategies

By Gissou Nia

Gissou Nia presents recommendations for new laws, amendments to existing laws, and the creation of enforcement mechanisms to aid in the effort to combat impunity for the IRI’s human rights violations and atrocity crimes.

North Macedonia on the threshold of Europe

By Damir Marusic, Dimitar Bechev

This report outlines the myriad challenges that face North Macedonia as it struggles to chart a path forward on EU accession and calls for Western leaders—especially those in Europe—to consider how they can be more productively and strategically engaged.

Spotlight: The Biden-Harris Administration and the future of supply chains in the Americas

By Juan Carlos Baker, Maurice Bellan, Christina Conlin, Kerry Contini, Reagan Demas, Ildefonso Guajardo, Landon Loomis, Jason Marczak, Manuel Padrón-Castillo, Anne Petterd, Shunko Rojas, Lisa Schroeter, Alison J. Stafford Powell, Joyce Smith, Jennifer Trock, Omar Vargas, Carlos Alberto Vela-Treviño

The month of November 2020 marked a turning point for the United States as voters cast their ballots at rates not recently seen in a US election. The historic race saw around 65 percent of the voting population in the United States participating, the highest in more than one hundred years. With three hundred and […]

El potencial de los yacimientos no convencionales en Colombia

By John D. Padilla

El informe, escrito por John D. Padilla, analiza los diversos temas globales y locales que repercutirán y determinarán si se puede llevar a cabo el desarrollo sostenible de los recursos de lutita en Colombia.

Moving Beyond COVID-19: Vaccines and Other Policy Considerations in Latin America

By Pepe Zhang

Parts of Latin America and the Caribbean have become COVID-19 hot spots. With 8 percent of the world’s population, the region accounts for nearly one-third of all COVID-19 infections and deaths as of late November. Although new infections have slowed on a regional level, ongoing second or third pandemic waves across Europe and the United States could be a sign of things to come.

The future of the United States dollar

By Michael Greenwald

The US economy and the power of the dollar have been unmatched since the time of the Bretton Woods agreement. The privilege of having the dollar serve as the global reserve currency enables the United States to weaponize its currency and leverage effective sanctions on rogue nations such as North Korea and Iran. However, some […]

Democratic offense against disinformation

While democratic states have made great progress in defending against disinformation and foreign interference, this report suggests it is time to go on the offensive to stop bad information actors in their tracks.

The Five Revolutions: Examining defense innovation in the Indo-Pacific region

By Tate Nurkin

The Indo-Pacific region has become a center of gravity for innovation in defense technologies and emerging military capabilities. This report explores major drivers of modernization and advances a new framework to capture defense technology and investment efforts in the region.

Japan’s nuclear reactor fleet: The geopolitical and climate implications of accelerated decommissioning

By Phyllis Yoshida

Atlantic Council Global Energy Center senior fellow Dr. Phyllis Yoshida discusses the unintended consequences of Japan's decision to decommission part of its nuclear reactor fleet in her new report.

African agency in the new Cold War: Traditional power competition in the post-COVID-19 African landscape

By Bronwyn Bruton

In a resource-scarce post-COVID environment that will accelerate competition between traditional external powers on the African continent, some African nations will find themselves in the crosshairs of a new Cold War mentality that could threaten African agency, regionalization, and the blooming ethos of pan-Africanism. African leaders' pursuit of collective interests will be decisive in setting the continent’s trajectory—toward a new African Century, or another period of thwarted ambitions.

Priorities for a transatlantic China strategy

By Franklin D. Kramer

Franklin D. Kramer lays out six spheres of strategic cooperation between Europe and North America to guide joint foreign policy goals with respect to China.

The temperature is rising, the fever white hot: The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam as flashpoint between Egypt and Ethiopia

By Christopher D. Booth

Once considered unlikely by regional experts, military confrontation along the Nile is a growing possibility, as a diplomatic solution to the Egyptian-Sudanese-Ethiopian stand-off recedes. Outside observers may not understand why Egypt considers the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) an “existential threat” to its existence, but, regardless, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and his advisors see it as such.

How the West should deal with Russia

By Alexander Vershbow, Daniel Fried

The United States must deal with Russia as it is, not as it wishes it to be. What does a policy framework to address both Russia’s dismal current realities and its better future potential look like?

Unexpected competition: A US strategy to keep its Central and Eastern European allies as allies in an era of great-power competition

By John Blocher

As China and Russia make inroads with traditional US allies in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), the United States is faced with unexpected competition. To keep these US allies as allies for years to come, policymakers should heed the roadmap offered in this strategy paper, which focuses on the case study of Hungary to recommend ways to deepen alliances with CEE nations.

Global value chains in an era of strategic uncertainty: Prospects for US-ROK cooperation

By Robert Dohner, Trey Herr, and Miyeon Oh

This report investigates key drivers that pose risks to global values chains in an era of strategic uncertainty and provides recommendations for the governments and private sectors of the United States and Republic of Korea.

Renewing transatlantic strategy on Iran

By Ellie Geranmayeh, Barbara Slavin, and Sahil Shah

A new report presents a series of recommendations for the E-3 and the EU to preserve the JCPOA, promote regional peace and development and boost people-to-people contacts with Iran in concert with the new US administration. Taken together, these steps would amount to a renewed transatlantic diplomatic agenda through which the United States and European allies can stabilize the nuclear file and then build on the resulting diplomatic momentum to address other concerns with Iran.

Defending the United States against Russian dark money

By Anders Åslund, Julia Friedlander

Warfare has evolved and the United States now faces a major unconventional threat: Russia's estimated $1 trillion of dark money. With it, the Kremlin can wreak havoc if the US fails to act and recognize this national security threat for what it is.

US sanctions policy: Lessons learned and recommendations for the new administration

By Daniel Fried

WTO reform is especially important now since it would provide an efficient way to tackle China’s unfair trade practices head-on. This paper proposes concurrent measures that the United States and European Union can take to revitalize the WTO.