Atlantic Council

The British papers are having a field day with a German parliamentary report's finding that Bundeswehr forces in Afghanistan are fat and drunk. 

Analysts suggest that Iran is only one to two years away from being able to enrich the uranium needed for a nuclear bomb, and according to the most recent IAEA report Tehran remains silent over possible weaponization activities. How then does President Barack Obama address this growing crisis when he takes office in January?

The rash of ships hijacked in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden has focused the international community’s efforts to put an end to the scourge of piracy off the Somali coast. But eradicating piracy once and for all will require more than tough talk, sending in a few warships, and establishing shipping lanes that commercial ships must transit through if they want protection.

Pirate attacks off the coast of Somalia and the sea-borne infiltration of terrorists into Mumbai are graphic (and recent) reminders why maritime domain awareness — being aware of activity occurring on or under the water that has a direct impact on a country's safety and security  —  matters.  Transatlantic cooperation has already succeeding in making the Mediterranean a safer place. Now it is time to direct our attention further afield.

NATO foreign ministers will meet in Brussels today to, in the words of the April 3 NATO Bucharest Summit Statement, “make a first assessment” on Georgia’s quest for membership in the alliance.  In the aftermath of Russia’s August attack on Georgia, a Membership Action Plan (MAP) is not now politically possible.

The rise in attractiveness of “State Capitalism” development models is cited as a potential consequence of the increasing economic power of Russia and particularly China in the latest report from the National Intelligence Council,  Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World.

General James L. Jones, chairman of the Atlantic Council, was appointed this morning by President-elect Barack Obama as the 21st National Security Advisor.

Our previous poll, "How should the U.S. and Europe address concerns over Russia?" drew surprisingly similar responses on both sides of the Atlantic, with solid majorities in both the U.S. and abroad preferring offering more integration in exchange for cooperation and only a third preferring a significantly harder line.

We're about to see a great shift in resources from the military to other actors, David Sanger argues.

As mourning of the Mumbai attack continues, one thing is certain—intelligence cooperation between India and the rest of the world must increase. This is not only due to the transnational nature of terrorism, but also because states increasingly rely on international cooperation to combat terrorism.