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New Atlanticist

Sep 21, 2012

Time to Get NATO More Active on the Syrian Situation

By Robert Bracknell

The Syrian regime is struggling to contain yet another manifestation of the Arab Spring with brutality and inhumanity unparalleled since the freedom phenomenon began in Tunisia last April. The international media has documented the slaughter of thousands of rebels and protected civilians, waging war indiscriminately and through inhumane and unlawful means against internal populations whose […]

NATO
Security & Defense

New Atlanticist

Sep 21, 2012

Russian Military Reform: Not Quite There Yet

By Jakub Kulhanek

With the last year defense budget of $72 billion, Russia has overtaken Britain and France to become the world’s third-largest defense spender. The Russian armed forces are in the midst of wide ranging transformation whilst acquiring some state-of-the-art weapons, including French-built Mistral amphibious assault ships.

Nuclear Nonproliferation
Russia

NATOSource

Sep 21, 2012

State Department’s Top Ten Answers on International Law in Cyberspace

By Harold Hongju Koh, Department of State

From Harold Hongju Koh, Department of State:  Everyone here knows that cyberspace presents new opportunities and new challenges for the United States in every foreign policy realm, including national defense.

Cybersecurity
Security & Defense

NATOSource

Sep 21, 2012

Report: Iran behind “significant and ongoing” cyber attacks against U.S. financial institutions

By Robert Windrem and Jim  Miklaszewsk, NBC News

From Robert Windrem and Jim  Miklaszewsk, NBC News:  National security officials told NBC News that the continuing cyber attacks this week that slowed the websites of JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America are being carried out by the government of Iran.

Cybersecurity
Security & Defense

New Atlanticist

Sep 20, 2012

Missing in Action: A Plan to Win the War of Ideas

By Harlan Ullman

Last week’s violence in more than 20 Muslim countries with four Americans killed in Libya has been attributed to a highly offensive 13-minute video that went viral on YouTube igniting these protests.

Middle East
National Security

NATOSource

Sep 20, 2012

Panetta talks cyber issues with Chinese, but experts see no decline in attacks out of China

By Lolita C. Baldor, AP

From Lolita C. Baldor, AP:  Despite several years of escalating diplomacy and warnings, the U.S. is making little headway in its efforts to tamp down aggressive Chinese cyberattacks against American companies and the government. U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who is wrapping up three days of meetings with military and civilian leaders, said he has […]

Cybersecurity
Security & Defense

New Atlanticist

Sep 19, 2012

The Day We Lost Afghanistan

By James Joyner

That the war in Afghanistan has been unwinnable has been obvious to most outside analysts since well before the so-called surge of 2009. Now, the United States government has finally admitted the obvious in deeds if not words.

Afghanistan
Security & Defense
Chinese oil rig in South China Sea

New Atlanticist

Sep 19, 2012

Deep-Water Oil Rigs as Strategic Weapons

By Martin N. Murphy

This, at least, is how Wang Yilin, Chairman of the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), chooses to view them. He reportedly told an audience at CNOOC’s headquarters in Beijing in May that ‘large-scale deep-water rigs are our mobile national territory and a strategic weapon’.

China
Energy & Environment

New Atlanticist

Sep 18, 2012

US-Mideast Policy Is Isolating America, Not Iran

By Sarwar Kashmeri

Two thirds of the U.N.’s countries recently signed a communique expressing support for Iran’s nuclear energy program and rejecting, what they termed, the United States’ unilateral sanctions against the Islamic Republic. A flashing red light that signals the American policy aimed at isolating Iran in order to curb its nuclear ambitions appears instead to have […]

International Organizations
Iran

Event Recap

Sep 18, 2012

Roundtable with Nigerien minister of justice on crisis in the Sahel

By Africa Center

The Michael S. Ansari Africa Center hosted a roundtable today on the crisis in the Sahel with H.E. Marou Amadou, minister of justice, guardian of seals, and spokesperson of the government the Republic of Niger. The minister, who is in Washington for meetings with US officials before traveling to New York to represent his country […]

Africa
Conflict

Experts

Events