In-depth research and reports

IntelBrief: Guns for Ivory: Africa’s Latest Conflict Trend

By Vivian Breckenridge

Bottom Line Up FrontThe demand for illegal African ivory has boomed in recent years, driven by flourishing Asian markets and facilitated by global trafficking networks Increasingly, poaching funds the activities of terrorist organizations, rebel movements, and other armed groups throughout the continent The illicit ivory trade will continue to fuel instability until states—in cooperation with […]

US-Cuba: A New Public Survey Supports Policy Change

By Peter Schechter and Jason Marczak

Why is now the right moment to commission a poll on the US public’s views toward Cuba and US-Cuba relations? Why is a new, nonpartisan Latin America center reaching out to grab the third rail of Latin American foreign policy in the United States? Both good questions. Sometimes in foreign policy, structural impediments or stark […]

IntelBrief: Somali Piracy Neutralized: West Africa Is Next

By J. Peter Pham

Bottom Line Up Front • The International Maritime Bureau reports that incidents of maritime piracy hit a six-year low in 2013, mainly because of a precipitous drop in attacks off the coast of Somalia• But piracy in the Gulf of Guinea is rapidly replacing the Somali threat. West African piracy accounted for 19 percent of worlwide attacks […]

Getting democracy promotion right in Egypt

By Amy Hawthorne

In a new Atlantic Council issue brief, “Getting Democracy Promotion Right in Egypt,” Amy Hawthorne contends that although the near-term prospects for democracy in Egypt are bleak, there is more the United States can do to promote democratic change over the longer term. Hawthorne, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for […]

J. Peter Pham on Resolving the Western Sahara Conflict

By J. Peter Pham

Atlantic Council Africa Center Director J. Peter Pham contributed the concluding chapter to a just-released book on Perspectives on Western Sahara: Myths, Nationalisms, and Geopolitics. Pham wrote on “A Realistic Solution to the Western Sahara Conflict” for the volume edited by Anouar Boukhars, senior fellow in the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for […]

Does Washington Have a Stake in the Sahel?

By John Campbell and J. Peter Pham

Long known as a region of weak, poorly governed, corrupt states, Africa’s Sahel is fast becoming more salient for the outside world. The challenges of radical Islam, narcotics trafficking and other criminal networks, and growing environmental stress are taxing the capacity of Sahelian governments. Many of these states have asked the United States and its […]

IntelBrief: Unmanned Peacekeeping: Are Drones The New Blue Helmets?

By Amy Calfas

Bottom Line Up Front • On December 2, the United Nations Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) announced it will deploy unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), popularly known as “drones,” to monitor rebel groups along the Congolese-Rwandan border.

Companions in Competitiveness

By Nicholas Dungan

How France and the United States Can Help Each Other Succeed in the Twenty-first Century The Atlantic Council’s Transatlantic Relations Program’s new report, Companions in Competitiveness: How France and the United States Can Help Each Other Succeed in the Twenty-first Century, examines the factors needed for the two allies to thrive the globalized world of the […]

Mexico Rising: Comprehensive Energy Reform at Last?

By David J. Goldwyn

A report released today by the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center on Mexican energy reform argues that Mexico has positioned itself to become a major player in the global market as a competitive and transparent supplier of oil. Authored by former State Department Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs David Goldwyn, […]

Rouhani’s first one hundred days

By Yasmin Alem and Barbara Slavin

Cautious domestic reforms and nuclear breakthrough After eight turbulent years during which conservatives monopolized Iranian politics, the election of centrist cleric Hassan Rouhani on June 14, 2013, marked a new chapter in post-revolutionary Iranian politics. In the latest Iran Task Force issue brief, “Rouhani’s First One Hundred Days: Cautious Domestic Reforms and Nuclear Breakthrough,” authors […]

Al-Shabaab’s Somali Safe Havens: A Springboard for Terror

The Africa Center’s Assistant Director Joshua Meservey argues in the Perspectives on Terrorism journal that Al-Shabaab’s September 2013 terror attack on the Westgate mall in Nairobi is not, as some have argued, a sign of the group’s desperation, but is instead evidence of its intact capabilities. Download the PDF

Building a better US-Gulf partnership

By Richard LeBaron

A new Atlantic Council issue brief, “Building a Better US-Gulf Partnership,” contends that the United States and its Gulf partners must prioritize and build on their shared interests in light of ongoing erosion of ties, and a fundamental gap in expectations about the US role in the region and its commitment to security for the […]

IntelBrief: Mixing Oil and Water in Northern Kenya

By Adrienne Chuck

Bottom Line Up Front In the past 18 months, scientists and oil exploration companies have discovered an estimated 300 million barrels of crude oil and 250 billion cubic meters of water in the impoverished county of Turkana, in northwest Kenya

The Danger of Divergence: Transatlantic Financial Reform & the G20 Agenda

By Chris Brummer

Since the last report on this topic—The Danger of Divergence: Transatlantic Cooperation on Financial Reform, published in 2010 by the Atlantic Council and Thomson Reuters—the United States and Europe have worked to translate an ever-growing body of international financial regulations into legally binding domestic regulations. Although this process has been largely harmonious and remarkably consistent, […]

Envisioning 2030: US strategy for the coming technology revolution

By Atlantic Council

Building upon this statement, this year’s Envisioning 2030: US Strategy for the Coming Technology Revolution, edited by Strategic Foresight Initiative Director Mathew J. Burrows, explores the consequences of major disruptions that will be caused by emerging technologies and recommends that the United States must prepare now if it wants to remain competitive on the global stage.