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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
UK Troops to Start Iraq Withdrawal in March
Peter Cassata | December 10, 2008According to the BBC, UK troops will begin pulling out of Iraq in March 2009:
The UK has been negotiating the legal basis on which its forces can stay in the Gulf state when its UN mandate expires at the end of the year. It still has 4,100 troops in Basra but defense chiefs plan a withdrawal over the next year if Iraqi elections in January pass off peacefully.
A withdrawal could allow resources to be diverted to Afghanistan. Prime Minister Gordon Brown has indicated that almost all British troops should leave Iraq by the middle of next year, with a few hundred possibly remaining to train Iraqi security forces.
UK government sources have said that helicopters, intelligence officers, and gradually troops will be transferred to Afghanistan after the Iraq withdrawal. The Times reported that around 400 British Troops will remain in Iraq:
Under present planning, the reduced British force of about 400 will include the Service personnel who are based in Baghdad, with the exception of the SAS squadrons. Some British personnel will remain in the south to continue training the Iraqi Navy at Umm Qasr port, after a specific request for them to do so by the Baghdad Government.
As recently as last month, the UK said it is willing to send an additional 2,000 troops to Afghanistan, where the Taliban and militant forces are stepping up their attacks.
