Posts

Showing posts from September, 2018

Kosovo’s Prime Minister Says Plan to Swap Territory with Serbia Puts His Country’s Transatlantic Aspirations at Risk

Kosovo’s prime minister, Ramush Haradinaj, says a land-swap plan floated by the presidents of his own country and Serbia is a dangerous idea that undermines Kosovo’s aspirations of NATO and European Union (EU) membership.

IMF Throws Argentina a $57 Billion Lifeline

On September 24, Mauricio Macri shared a dinner table (some laughs and an animated conversation) with Christine Lagarde in New York City. The Argentine president told guests at the Atlantic Council’s Global Citizen Awards dinner about the great relationship he had with the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

GCA 2018 Highlights: Crushing on Christine Lagarde, Chobani’s Ulukaya is More than Just a Yogurt Maker, And More

More than 500 guests from fifty countries attended the Atlantic Council’s 9 th annual Global Citizen Awards dinner in New York City on September 24. The award was presented to Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg; Argentine President Mauricio Macri; Hamdi Ulukaya, founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Chobani; and the late Arizona Republican Sen. John S. McCain.

Trump Puts America First at the United Nations

US President Donald J. Trump on September 25 used his second address to the United Nations General Assembly to reaffirm his commitment to an America First approach to foreign policy.

9 Facts You Should Know About the United Nations

The 73 rd session of the United Nations General Assembly opened in New York on September 18. General debate opens on September 25. US President Donald J. Trump will be among a galaxy of world leaders who will address the meeting.

Atlantic Council Bestows Posthumous Global Citizen Award on John McCain

John S. McCain was remembered at the Atlantic Council’s Global Citizen Awards dinner in New York on September 24 as a man who spoke truth to power and was unafraid to stand up for the values in which he truly believed. McCain, a war hero who served for thirty-five years in the US Congress—first in the House and then the Senate—died on August 25 after a battle with brain cancer. He was 81.

Atlantic Council Honors Global Citizens

To Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg, being a global citizen means embodying two values: “a sense of shared responsibility and shared purpose.” Speaking at the Atlantic Council’s 9 th annual Global Citizen Awards dinner in New York City, Solberg argued that in the world today, as “in a village, you cannot survive without trusting your fellow people. Without joining forces in everyday life.”

Fifth Anniversary of Westgate Mall Attack: Fighting Al-Shabaab in Africa

September 21, 2013, started out like any other day at the Westgate mall. Shoppers in search of deals strolled unaware that their lives would soon be changed forever. At midday, heavily armed militants lobbing grenades and firing indiscriminately turned the upscale shopping center in Kenya’s capital city, Nairobi, into a war zone. Security forces, caught off guard and woefully unprepared, struggled to rescue hundreds of shoppers and hunt down the assailants. By the end of a four-day siege—the worst attack on Kenyan soil since the 1998 US Embassy bombing by al Qaeda—sixty-seven people were dead and more than two hundred wounded. Al-Shabaab, a Somalia-based terrorist group that has pledged allegiance to al Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Testing North Korea's Nuclear Offer

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has agreed to dismantle missile facilities in the presence of international inspectors and take steps toward denuclearization—provided the United States takes “corresponding measures.” US President Donald J. Trump called Kim’s pledges “very exciting” on Twitter.

More Shots Fired in US-China Trade War

This is what a trade war looks like. On September 18, hours after US President Donald J. Trump announced his decision to impose 10 percent tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports , China struck back . Beijing retaliated immediately, announcing tariffs on an additional $60 billion in US imports. The new Chinese tariffs will target more than 5,000 US goods, including meat, nuts, alcoholic drinks, chemicals, clothes, machinery, furniture, and auto parts—nearly everything that China imports from the United States.

In South Sudan, It’s Déjà Vu All Over Again

The so-called peace deal between South Sudan’s warring parties is in fact a “desperate play” by the country’s two main political actors to fend off international sanctions and extend their hold on power, according to J. Peter Pham, director of the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center.

The Day NATO Stood with the United States

In the early hours of September 12, 2001, as the world was coming to grips with the enormity of the events of the day before, US National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice was busy working the phones. She discussed with the United States’ NATO allies the possibility of doing something never done before in the history of the Alliance: the invocation of Article 5 on collective defense.

Six Years After a US Ambassador Was Killed in Benghazi, Libya Remains Mired in Chaos

On the night of September 11, 2012, the US diplomatic compound in Benghazi was attacked and burned. The US Ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, who was visiting Libya’s eastern city, and three other US citizens lost their lives. At first, the attack was thought to have been carried out by a mob angry about a video made in the United States that mocked Islam and the Prophet Muhammad. It was later determined to be an act of terrorism.

The War in Syria: A Battle Looms in Idlib

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, backed by Russia and Iran, has made clear its intentions to seize control of Idlib province—the last remaining rebel-held stronghold in the war-ravaged nation. Now, with Russian ships moored in the Mediterranean Sea and Assad’s forces closing in from the south, it is methodically going about doing just that.

Trump Picks Zalmay Khalilzad, Atlantic Council Board Director, as Special Representative on Afghanistan

The appointment of Zalmay Khalilzad as US President Donald J. Trump’s special representative on Afghanistan sends a clear signal that the US administration is serious about winding down its involvement in the war in Afghanistan. By putting a longtime critic of Pakistan in charge of the peace process, the Trump administration has also put Islamabad on notice that it has little patience for its support for terrorists in Afghanistan.