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Kazakhstan and the United States: Twenty Years of Ambiguous Partnership
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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.
Atlantic Council SAG Members Nominated for Duke of Westminster's Medal for Military Literature
The Oxford Handbook of War, edited by Atlantic Council Strategic Advisors Group members Julian Lindley-French and Yves Boyer, has been nominated for the prestigious Duke of Westminster’s Medal for Military Literature awarded by the Royal United Services Institute.
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
Why Nigeria Matters: Another Reminder
Nikolas Gvosdev | June 25, 2009
This morning's attack on a key Nigerian oil pipeline provides yet another graphic reminder as to why West Africa matters to the economic and energy security of the Euro-Atlantic world.
The insurgents of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) targeted the Bille-Krakrama pipeline which supplies Shell's export terminal in Bonny in Nigeria. Timed to coincide with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's visit to finalize major energy investment deals, the attackers followed their symbolic message with a formal one: "This is the fate that awaits the gas pipelines you plan to invest in (in) Nigeria if justice is not factored in the whole process."
In response to this (as well as a power outage at major refineries in Texas), the price of crude oil for August deliveries in both the London and New York markets went up. The impact could have been greater; it was minimized because increases in unemployment in the United States and in other developed countries is holding down demand.
But today's incident is not an isolated one. As Reuters noted, "Attacks have forced foreign oil companies, including Chevron and Italy's Agip,to shut at least 133,000 barrels per day of oil production in the past month."
More attacks are likely--leading to further supply interruptions. Continued instability may also delay the trans-Sahara gas project--designed to link Nigeria's vast natural gas reserves with a European market hungry for new sources of supply.
What happens in Nigeria matters--it is not a far off region with little impact on the security and health of the Western world. U.S. consumers will be paying a little more at the gas pumps as a result of what happened today. But continuing to ignore the importance of Nigeria and some of the other states of West Africa for the future of the Atlantic community is a risk not worth running.
Nikolas K. Gvosdev, an Atlantic Council contributing editor, is on the faculty of the U.S. Naval War College. The views expressed are his own and do not reflect those of the Navy or the U.S. government. Photo: Getty Images.
