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Kazakhstan and the United States: Twenty Years of Ambiguous Partnership
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US Lessons for the Eurozone Restoring Confidence through Transparency
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Council News
Jonathan Paris Discusses Syrian Crisis with France 24
Jonathan Paris, nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council's South Asia Center, appeared on France 24 to discuss Russia's support for the Assad regime and what it means for a possible UN resolution against Syria.
Damon Wilson US Senate Testimony: Ukraine at a Crossroads
On February 1, Atlantic Council executive vice president Damon Wilson testified at a hearing of the US Senate Committe on Foreign Relations on the topic: "Ukraine at a Crossroads: What's at Stake for the US and Europe?"
Michele Dunne on US-Egypt Relations for NPR's Morning Edition
Relations between the US and Egypt have taken a downturn since Egyptian authorities raided the offices of seventeen nongovernmental organizations in December - three of them US-funded. Michele Dunne, director of the Atlantic Council's Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, spoke on NPR's Morning Edition about the situation and what it means for US aid to Egypt.
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The South Asia Center receives guidance and support from many experts throughout the world. Our senior fellows, guest-speakers, Center patrons, and visitors contribute heavily to the Center’s mission to “wage peace,” and engage the international community in the region. The Center asked our contributors the simple, but key question, “What you do expect in 2012?”
REGISTER
Somali Pirates Defy EU Force
James Joyner | December 06, 2008The EU's stepped up efforts against pirates in the Indian Ocean are getting an early test, AFP reports:
Somali pirates were undeterred Saturday as a new European Union naval forces readied to launch an operation aimed at curbing relentless attacks that have rattled world maritime trade. The EU's anti-piracy drive, dubbed Atalanta, was to formally kick off on Monday, increasing the military presence in the Gulf of Aden, which has in recent months become the world's most dangerous stretch of water.
[...]
"The presence of European war ships will undermine the Somalis' ability to protect their natural resources from illegal fishing," said Mohamed Said, a pirate leader whose group has held the Saudi super-tanker Sirius Star for ransom since November 15. "Many of the polluters of Somalia's waters, those who dump toxic waste, are Europeans. This force will contribute to giving them unimpeded access to our waters," he told AFP.
With five of six EU ships expected in Somali waters this month, the international naval presence in the region will be further enhanced, restricting the pirates' room for manoeuvre. But despite the added support of NATO, the US navy and Asian powers, experts argue the number of war ships will remain insufficient to root out piracy. According to UNOSAT, a UN-affiliated agency that anaylses satellite data, the recent increase in naval vessels has done little to deter pirates, only forcing them to concentrate their attacks in specific areas.
As James Easaw, David Sagunsky and Nikolas Gvosdev, Robert Manning and others have noted, the problem is ultimately not going to be solved on the sea alone. The ocean is simply too vast to patrol effectively.
