In-depth research and reports

Eritrea: Coming in from the cold

By Bronwyn Bruton

Eritrea has long been stigmatized as a regional “spoiler” by Washington, and despite little evidence of wrongdoing, the country remains under Security Council sanctions for supporting terrorist groups in Somalia. Now is the time to rethink that relationship, argues Atlantic Council Africa Center Deputy Director Bronwyn Bruton in a new issue brief entitled “Eritrea: Coming […]

Eritrea’s economy: Ideology and opportunity

By Seth Kaplan

Eritrea is often in the news for all the wrong reasons: its high rates of migration to Europe (it has sent more refugees to Europe in recent years than any other African nation), its conflicts with neighboring Ethiopia and Djibouti, and controversy over its mandatory and indefinite national service conscription program. Human rights activists, in […]

Evaluating Western Sanctions on Russia

By Sergey Aleksashenko

It has been more than two years since the European Union (EU) and the United States imposed economic sanctions on Russia for its aggression in Ukraine. For some of the measures that is time enough to evaluate effectiveness. “The sanctions’ greatest achievement is that they have been an important demonstration of transatlantic unity. Still, there […]

A measured US strategy for the new Africa

By Dr. J. Peter Pham

Africa’s story is increasingly one of economic dynamism that is driven, in part, by political reform and improvements in governance. But, there are also very real security, humanitarian, and developmental challenges that remain to be confronted. The United States has a stake in helping to tackle these challenges, not least because it is in its own national interest to do so.

Latin America and the Caribbean 2030: future scenarios

By Jason Marczak and Peter Engelke

A new Atlantic Council–Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) report lays out six scenarios for Latin America and the Caribbean in 2030, underscoring how greater integration and better governance hold the key to greater prosperity.

Middle East Strategy Task Force: Final report of the co-chairs

By Madeleine K. Albright and Stephen J. Hadley

The final report of Middle East Strategy Task Force Co-Chairs Madeleine K. Albright and Stephen J. Hadley proposes nothing short of a paradigm shift in how the international community and the Middle East interact.

Middle East Strategy Task Force: Politics, governance, and state-society relations

By Tamara Cofman Wittes

Investing in sustainable governance is important for the world and for the rising generation of young Arabs, who can either become a force for tremendous progress or a generation lost to violence and despair.

Broken embraces: is Central Europe falling out of love with the West?

By Jeffrey Gedmin and Simona Kordosova Lightfoot

Throughout much of the 1990s, progress was the order of the day. NATO enlargement under the Clinton administration was part of a broader global strategy, presenting democratic and entrepreneurial opportunity. This process was coupled with the prospect of new cooperation with Russia to create an undivided, free, and prosperous Europe. A decade and a half […]

A path to US leadership in the Asia-Pacific

By Olin Wethington and Robert A. Manning

The Kremlin’s Trojan Horses

By Alina Polyakova, Marlene Laruelle, Stefan Meister, and Neil Barnett

“Since Putin’s return to power in 2012, the Kremlin has accelerated its efforts to resurrect the arsenal of ‘active measures’…” writes Dr. Alina Polyakova in The Kremlin’s Trojan Horses: Russian Influence in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, a new report from the Atlantic Council’s Dinu Patriciu’s Eurasia Center. Western European democracies are not immune to the […]

The EU’s Capital Markets Union

By Zdenek Kudrna

The European Union (EU) is facing numerous crises, including massive migration flows, the UK’s vote to leave the EU (Brexit), and rising support for anti-EU and populist parties. In “The EU’s Capital Markets Union—Unlocking Investment Through Gradual Integration,” author Zdenek Kudrna, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Salzburg, argues that these crises all share […]

Aftermath of the Arab spring in North Africa

By Mohsin Khan and Karim Mezran

At the outset of the political uprisings that began in North Africa in 2010, the four countries of Algeria, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia faced similar economic and political challenges. Over the past almost six years, the countries have adopted different approaches to address these problems, however the overall economic picture today is grim amid varied […]