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Kazakhstan and the United States: Twenty Years of Ambiguous Partnership
The Five Futures of Cyber Conflict and Cooperation
US Lessons for the Eurozone Restoring Confidence through Transparency
Prospects and Challenges for Increasing India-Pakistan Trade
A US-EU Action Plan for Supporting Democratization: Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia
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.
FEATURED ISSUE
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
U.S. and Russia Refuse to Sign Cluster Bomb Treaty
Neil Richard Leslie | December 04, 2008A treaty banning cluster bombs opened for signature in Oslo yesterday, but the U.S., Russia and China are among the major powers refusing to sign. “Today we confirm that cluster bombs are banned for ever,” said Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg. The Independent:
America and Russia are two major holdouts in the signing of a landmark agreement banning cluster bombs which both nations have used in the past with lethal effect to kill and maim children in Afghanistan. Britain – a convert to the treaty – is among the 107 nations committed to signing the treaty which opened for signature today in Oslo. It was the result of a determined “coalition of the willing” whose campaign to ban the bombs began after Israel’s 2006 war against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
[...]
... Cluster bombs have been used in recent conflicts despite the drive to ban them. Both Russia and Georgia – equipped by Israel – are accused of having used cluster bombs in the Georgia conflict last summer. According to Human Rights Watch, the bombs, which fire dozens of bomblets when detonated, killed 17 civilians during the brief, bloody war and wounded dozens more.
[...]
Campaigners hope that the cluster bomb treaty holdouts will be shamed into restricting their use or observing a moratorium, as happened with the 1997 Ottawa treaty. The notable holdouts on cluster bombs – Russia, the US, China and Israel – are the same nations who refused to sign the Ottawa pact.
The campaign was inspired by the successful treaty banning landmines. The 1997 landmine treaty went outside the UN and garnered support from NGOs, despite initial opposition from states who wanted to keep the weapons.
