Section: Atlantic Council (USA)
Why Ukraine Struggles to Reform
Listen to the proclamations of Ukraine’s political leaders and you might think the country is in the midst of rapid change. On June 4, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko declared that “reforms are the key word…The countdown of the period of reforms has started.”There is much talk of reform, but the reality is less...
Nuclear Credibility: What the United States Lost in Ukraine and Pakistan and the Implications for the Iran Deal
As the nuclear negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 powers continue on past the June 30 deadline, the focus remains on the details of an agreement and whether the negotiators can come to a final resolution. But even as these details continue to be debated, it is important to consider the bigger picture – whether or not an agreement with Iran is...
Exposing Russian Disinformation
Editor’s note: Ambassador John B. Emerson gave the opening remarks at “Exposing Russian Disinformation in the 21st Century,” a conference sponsored by the Atlantic Council, the European Council on Foreign Relations, and the Heinrich Böll Foundation on June 25, 2015 in Berlin. Emerson’s remarks have been shortened below....
Ukraine, China, ISIS Top Long List of Challenges for EU, NATO
The unity and strategic viability of the transatlantic alliance and the US major non-NATO democratic allies, including Japan, South Korea, Australia, Israel, the Philippines, and others, will be severely tested in the years to come. As always, freedom is not free, and its price is constant vigilance.The United States and its allies face...
Youth Platform is Transforming Eastern Ukraine
“We brought down some Lenins in people’s heads,” says organizer Yuriy Didula Days after Ukrainian forces retook the city of Kramatorsk on July 5, 2014, Yuriy Didula and two colleagues from western Ukraine piled into a car and drove building materials into the city.”People in the east felt abandoned by the state,”...
Why the West Should Give Ukraine’s New Spymaster a Chance
Late June in Kyiv can be beautiful. With clear skies, temperatures peaking in the high 70s, the natural beauty of the city and its citizens, it can be easy to forget that the country is at war. In part that is a result of the country’s success. A year ago, few would have predicted that the country’s armed forces would fight the...
Hey, Remember Me? It’s Europe.
The Transatlantic Alliance is in Trouble “We lived next to Russia for 500 years—listen to what we have to say,” Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski said at the Bratislava Global Security Forum on June 20. He’s right. The West needs to pay attention and achieve strategic clarity in Europe and beyond before it’s too...
Russia Bans Freedom to Report, Says Top Investigative Journalist
Russia’s Foreign Ministry has banned US investigative journalist Simon Ostrovsky from working in Russia. On June 4, it denied a press visa for Ostrovsky, an Emmy award-winning documentary filmmaker and journalist best known for his coverage of the Ukraine crisis for VICE News. …read more Source: Atlantic...
Mac Thornberry Warns of Growing Threats in Face of Likely Obama Defense Bill Veto
Mac Thornberry, the new chairman of the US House Armed Services Committee, accused President Barack Obama on June 23 of “holding hostage” the nation’s security by threatening to veto the annual defense appropriations bill, which passed the Senate on June 18 by seventy-one to twenty-five with “overwhelming bipartisan support.” Thornberry...
Here’s How to Crowdsource Ukrainian Language and Culture
On a scorching Saturday afternoon in the Pechersk district of Kyiv, a group of five young people take refuge in a cool alcove hidden at the back of the Ivan Honchar Museum for a free Ukrainian class. Together, for ninety minutes, they discuss that week’s subject, studentstvo (“student life”), learning new Ukrainian words to...
