Section: Atlantic Council (USA)
Defining US Strategy for a World in Transition
With war tearing apart eastern Ukraine, ethnic strife claiming lives from Libya to Yemen, and record numbers of African refugees drowning in the Mediterranean, it’s easy to conclude that the once-familiar world order is falling apart. Whether or not that’s true, few scholars would dispute that the United States is no longer in charge...
Gazprom, Just Follow the Law
European energy security has received a great deal of attention on both sides of the Atlantic since Russia suspended gas shipments through Ukraine in the winter of 2009. In response to Ukraine’s experience, the European Union has taken steps to develop interconnectors and new liquefied natural gas facilities that would allow gas to flow to...
Letter: Experts Worry that “Decommunization” Laws Curtail Free Speech
Editor’s note:It’s unfortunate that in a time of critical issues that legislation that disenfranchises so many looks like it’s going to become law.Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is expected to sign four laws on “decommunization,” recently passed by Ukraine’s parliament, which enact an official version of...
The Achilles’ Heel of Ukraine’s Mighty Oligarchs
The Ukrainian government’s well-executed showdown in March 2015 to rein in the country’s wealthiest oligarch is the first of many battles with the oligarchs that lie ahead. In the battle with the oligarchs, Poroshenko—the owner of Roshen Confectionery Corporation and an oligarch himself—is uniquely positioned to fight. The President...
No Easy Outs for Putin: US Presidential Candidates United on Ukraine
Ukraine will remain at the heart of the conflict between the US and Russia beyond the 2016 presidential election. In the polls, Americans are united on Ukraine; the majority of respondents support increased sanctions on the Kremlin. All of the major presidential candidates, save Senator Rand Paul, take a tough approach with Moscow and support...
Economics 101: A Lesson for Ukraine
Ukraine Can Learn from Baltic States’ Experience with Reforms, says Lithuania’s Ex-Prime Minister As it struggles to fix its economy, Ukraine would do well to study the reforms successfully implemented by three fellow former Soviet republics in the Baltics, Andrius Kubilius, Lithuania’s former Prime Minister said April 16 at the...
Ukrainian Fighter Pilot’s Case More About Politics, Less About Law, Says Attorney
When Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine captured a fighter pilot loyal to Kyiv in June 2014, they got more than they bargained for. Nearly a year later, Nadiya Savchenko is on trial in Russia, and at the center of an international imbroglio. “This isn’t an ordinary case,” Russian attorney Mark Feygin said at the Atlantic Council...
Out of the Abyss: Anders Åslund Sees Hope for Ukrainian Economy
Ukraine: What Went Wrong and How to Fix It, the new book by Anders Åslund of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, presents so compelling an argument that—even before publication on April 17—it has already persuaded the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Western nations to adopt a $40 billion economic stabilization program for...
Is Authoritarianism Staging a Comeback?
New volume examines how authoritarian regimes have become smarter The late Samuel Huntington, a Harvard political scientist, famously talked about democratization as a series of wave motions forward and backward. Scholars label the burst of democratization in Latin America, Asia, and Eastern Europe in the 1980s and 1990s as the Third Wave. The...
A View from Luhansk: Waiting for War to Return
Luhansk Oblast – Ukrainians are waiting for war to start again. Since a ceasefire agreement went into effect in February, the winter has been relatively quiet in Luhansk Oblast, marred only by sporadic rockets fired from the territory of the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic (LNR). In many respects, life appears oddly normal in the small...
