United States and Canada

Obama Win Offers Brand America a Global Lift

By Frederick Kempe

The U.S. would profit globally from a failed Obama presidency more than it would from a successful McCain presidency. That’s the sort of provocative, but plausible, statement that lies at the heart of the famous Oxford Union debates. Disagree?

Afghanistan Spins Out of Control, U.S. Fiddles

By Frederick Kempe

NATO is winning most battles in Afghanistan, but the international community is losing the war.That has consequences far beyond Afghanistan if the U.S., Europe and its friends don’t change course fast. The dangers include deepening of regional instability that engulfs nuclear- tipped Pakistan, spreading global terrorism and the declining relevance of the North Atlantic Treaty […]

Chinese, Gulf Funds Deserve U.S. Welcome Mat

By Frederick Kempe

It’s good and bad that the issue of sovereign wealth funds has entered the U.S. presidential debate. What’s positive is that the candidates have the chance to educate the American electorate during a moment of mounting economic gloom — and while people are paying attention — about the increased role that foreign capital plays in […]

U.S.-Turkey Relations Require New Focus

A series of expert working papers released today by the Atlantic Council call for Turkey and the United States­ ­to give grea­ter priority to working in a trilatera­l f­ormat with Europe on energy sec­urity, co­unter-terrorism, and building regional stability in the broader Middle East.  The United States and Turkey have drifted apart­ since the end […]

Enhancing Democracy Assistance

This report recognizes that democracy assistance is essential to the promotion of US foreign policy and global interests, and offers political and technical recommendations in order to enhance democracy assistance. Download the PDF

A Road Map for Restructuring U.S. Relations with Cuba

The U.S. government has sought to advance democratic and free-market change in Cuba for 47 years. Those efforts have failed. Indeed, the transfer of power from Fidel Castro has produced little change in Cuba’s politics and took place with no manifestations of broad popular demands for an end to one-party Communist rule. Instead, the Cuban […]

Transatlantic Leadership for a New Global Economy

The Council’s report Transatlantic Leadership for a New Global Economy is the product of a commission co-chaired by Stuart E. Eizenstat, former deputy secretary of the Treasury a­nd Council board member, and Grant D. Aldonas, former under secretary of Commerce for international trade. The report argues that to deal with a new international economy, the […]

Advancing U.S. Interests with the European Union

With the fall of the Berlin Wall, the face of Europe has been transformed. Most Americans have focused on the geopolitical and security dimensions of these changes, overlooking another signifi cant aspect: the evolution and expansion of the European Union. Europe today is a unique construction, comprised neither of individual, sovereign states, nor of a […]