Describing the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan as increasingly perilous, President Obama has committed his administration to enhancing the military, governance, and economic capacity of the two countries.  Chairman of the Institute for State Effectiveness and former Afghan Minister of Finance Dr. Ashraf Ghani outlines a medium-term framework for state-building in Afghanistan for the Atlantic Council in A Ten-Year Framework for Afghanistan: Executing the Obama Plan and Beyond.

What started last year as a growing international credit crunch and, by September, a global banking crisis has now spread into the real economy. International trade, investment and economic growth are all contracting. A drastic curtailment of credit, collapsing global demand and a loss of trade finance is having a devastating economic effect on both the developed and developing worlds, especially those economies that are heavily dependent on exports.

The world is energy short and carbon long. This report focuses on that juxtaposition and the means to achieve energy security in a world concerned over climate change and maintaining economic growth.

In one of his first acts as president, Barack Obama signed an executive order closing the Guantanamo Bay prison camp within a year.  According to a new paper published by the Atlantic Council, Beyond Closing Guantanamo, this is a step in the right direction, but the new U.S. administration should undertake several additional measures aimed at restoring the United States as a leader in the international legal system.

Pakistan faces dire economic and security threats that threaten both the existence of Pakistan as a democratic and stable state and the region as a whole, John Kerry and Chuck Hagel told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Given the tools and the financing, Pakistan can turn back from the brink.

The Atlantic Council is pleased to release its Final Report of its three-year project on U.S. policy toward North Korea. This report makes clear that unless President Obama adopts a new strategy of seeking a comprehensive settlement in Korea, the U.S. is unlikely to eliminate North Korea’s nuclear program.

We have an open but fleeting moment to forge a more effective Atlantic partnership. We must seize it now. European and North American allies have allowed their relations to become discordant, yet the times demand vigor and unity. Courageous decisions need to be taken to breathe new life and relevance into the Atlantic partnership, which must be recast to tackle a diverse range of serious challenges at home and abroad.

The international system—as constructed following the Second World War—will be almost unrecognizable by 2025 owing to the rise of emerging powers, a globalizing economy, an historic transfer of relative wealth and economic power from West to East, and the growing influence of nonstate actors.  By 2025, the international system will be a global multipolar one with gaps in national power continuing to narrow between developed and developing countries.

Shortly after the release of the Atlantic Council’s report, Restoring Georgia’s Sovereignty in Abkhazia, Russia invaded Georgia and war broke out over the breakaway region of South Ossetia. The United States and its European partners were put to the test; Moscow’s recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia not only challenged Georgia’s sovereignty, but by demonstrating its willingness to use military action, Moscow also sent a message about Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations as well as the viability of energy transport projects running from the Caspian, through Georgia, to western markets.

The persistence of poverty and extreme deprivation in developing countries prevents the spread of freedom and democracy as certainly as any other factor. Starting points to alleviate that poverty are developing countries’ ability to obtain the clean energy and water supplies that are necessary to promote economic growth and public health. This paper attempts to create a new paradigm for U.S. foreign policy, taking advantage of the vast (as yet untapped) resources of the U.S. technical capabilities in our research institutions to better understand the cause and effect of energy-water-agriculture interdependencies on national and regional instabilities, as well as the potential for transformational technological impacts on future development and stability.