Content

New Atlanticist

May 22, 2013

Crisis in the Sahel: Overview

By Rudolph Atallah

North Africa and the intertwined Sahel, from Egypt to Mauritania, is a region that has undergone profound and destabilizing political and social change in the last several years, especially since the “Arab Spring” of 2011. Nascent political systems, newly empowered non-state actors, and underlying structural problems in the region contribute to an increasingly volatile mix, […]

National Security North Africa

New Atlanticist

May 21, 2013

Three Benghazi Myths

By R. Nicholas Burns

The Benghazi controversy’s return to Washington’s raging partisan wars continues to portray our political culture at its worst.

Libya National Security

New Atlanticist

May 17, 2013

Challenges in Measuring Violent Conflict, Syria Edition

By Jay Ulfelder

As part of a larger (but, unfortunately, gated) story on how the terrific new Global Data on Events, Language, and Tone (GDELT) might help social scientists forecast violent conflicts, the New Scientist recently posted some graphics using GDELT to chart the ongoing civil war in Syria. Among those graphics was this time-series plot of violent events per […]

National Security Security & Defense

New Atlanticist

May 10, 2013

Defense: And What Will Europe Do?

By Sven Biscop

The debate about European defense tends to focus on the need to spend more and deploy more. One deceptively simple question is usually ignored: why? Americans seem to assume that more European capabilities will be deployed where it is convenient for the United States. Europeans just seek to avoid the difficult debate that it would […]

Europe & Eurasia European Union

New Atlanticist

May 6, 2013

Syria and the Obama Administration’s Loss of Credibility

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

When it comes to maintaining military credibility in the face of potential national security threats, the Obama administration has gone out of its way to convince friend and foe alike that the president and the administration do not bluff when it comes to their foreign policy and national security goals and commitments.

National Security Security & Defense

New Atlanticist

May 6, 2013

America’s Most Tolerated Dangers

By Harlan Ullman

If asked, most Americans would agree that economic and financial chaos or a stunning terrorist attack by foreign jihadis possibly with nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction constitute among the gravest threats to the United States. But the United States faces other more immediate, yet tolerated, dangers that have done and are doing irreparable […]

National Security Security & Defense

New Atlanticist

Apr 24, 2013

Why Terrorism is Different

By James Joyner

In the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing, several commentators have asked why we label some acts of mass violence “terrorism” while others are considered ordinary crime. Why do we treat those two so very differently, despite the latter being responsible for far more American deaths?

National Security Security & Defense

New Atlanticist

Apr 19, 2013

Useless Speculation on Twitter Standard Time

By James Joyner

Since the news broke this morning that the likely perpetrators of the Boston Marathon bombing are two brothers from Chechnya, speculation has been rampant about their ties to militant groups there. That zero evidence supports that proposition seems irrelevant. We’re on Twitter Standard Time and we expect answers instantaneously.

Cybersecurity National Security

New Atlanticist

Apr 16, 2013

Seeking to Avert Cyber War

By Frederick Kempe

Amid the buzz in Washington about new North Korean nuclear threats, President Barack Obama late last week summoned 15 of America’s top financial leaders to the White House to discuss what his administration considers to be threats that are more pervasive, more persistent and less manageable ‑ cyber risks. “The president scared the hell out […]

Cybersecurity Korea

New Atlanticist

Apr 10, 2013

No, It’s Not Too Soon to Judge Iraq War

By James Joyner

Paul Wolfowitz, a leading cheerleader for and planner of the Iraq War, says “it’s too soon to tell” how it turned out.

National Security Security & Defense

Experts

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