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81. Achieving International Cyber Stability

Author:
Franklin D. Kramer
Publication Date:
09-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Atlantic Council
Abstract:
The most disruptive potential cyber security concern is the capacity of information technology to generate or escalate geopolitical conflicts into open or uncontained hostilities through attacks on operational networks. Undermining critical capabilities such as the military or the electric power grid would be highly destabilizing and potentially escalatory, generating a perceived need to move a confrontation toward conflict or to escalate a contained conflict into a broader arena.
Topic:
International Cooperation, International Law, Science and Technology, and International Security

82. Envisioning 2030: US Strategy for a Post-Western World

Author:
Robert A. Manning
Publication Date:
12-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Atlantic Council
Abstract:
The National Intelligence Council in its new report, Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds, argues that the historic moment the Obama Administration now confronts “recalls past transition points–such as 1815, 1919, 1945, and 1989–when the path forward was not clear-cut and the world faced the possibility of different global futures.”
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Economics, Globalization, Politics, and Hegemony
Political Geography:
United States, Europe, and Atlantic Ocean

83. Learning by Doing: The Pakistan Army's Experience with Counterinsurgency

Author:
Shuja Nawaz
Publication Date:
02-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Atlantic Council
Abstract:
Despite having entered the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) in force to support the coalition invasion of Afghanistan under Operation Enduring Freedom, the Pakistan Army did not undertake real counterinsurgency operations till much after 2001. Most of its early operations centered on the conventional use of dominating force against irregular opponents in this rugged region. It was hampered as much by lack of training and equipment as it was by its outmoded approaches to fighting in the frontier region. Gradually, its officers began learning by doing, and the Swat operation in 2008 probably marked the turning point in the doctrinal shift to serious counterinsurgency (COIN) operations, regardless of the fact that the army called it Low Intensity Conflict (LIC).
Topic:
Defense Policy, Terrorism, Military Strategy, Counterinsurgency, and Governance
Political Geography:
Pakistan, Afghanistan, and South Asia

84. Nordic-Baltic Security in the 21st Century

Author:
Robert Nurick
Publication Date:
09-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Atlantic Council
Abstract:
Look at the security arrangements for the eight countries of the Nordic and Baltic region and two things are immediately apparent. The countries that have the greatest needs have the worst security. And the countries that have the strongest defense are divided.
Topic:
NATO, Diplomacy, Energy Policy, and International Security

85. U.S.-Iran Relations: Policy Compendium

Author:
Kenneth Katzman
Publication Date:
03-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Atlantic Council
Abstract:
This chapter contains major policy statements and documents on Iran primarily from the current and previous U.S. Administrations. The statements and documents presented here are intended to be illustrative of themes in U.S. policy toward Iran. Statements on specifi c aspects of U.S. policy toward Iran, such as U.S. interpretations of Iran's disputed June 12, 2009 presidential election, Iran's positions on multilateral meetings on its nuclear program, its holding of dual U.S.-Iranian nationals periodically, are a frequent feature of daily State Department and White House press briefi ngs on U.S. foreign policy.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Treaties and Agreements, and Bilateral Relations
Political Geography:
United States, Iran, and United Nations

86. STRATCON 2010: An Alliance for a Global Century

Publication Date:
04-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Atlantic Council
Abstract:
In the late 1940s, a visionary generation of transatlantic leaders – shaped by the experience of the most devastating war in human history – decided to build a new world based on respect for universal human values and cooperation among nations. Thus was born the United Nations, the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, the International Court of Justice, the Bretton Woods Institutions of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, the European Coal and Steel Community and, of course, NATO.
Topic:
International Relations, NATO, International Political Economy, International Security, and Reform

87. Pakistan in the Danger Zone

Author:
Shuja Nawaz
Publication Date:
06-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Atlantic Council
Abstract:
The Afghanistan war may be lost on the battlefields of Pakistan, where a vicious conflict is now being fought by Pakistan against a homegrown insurgency spawned by the war across its Western frontier. A year after we at the Atlantic Council raised a warning flag about the effects of failure in Afghanistan and the need to meet Pakistan's urgent needs in its existential war against militancy and terrorism, the situation in Pakistan remains on edge. Domestic politics remain in a constant state of flux, with some progress toward a democratic polity overshadowed by periodic upheavals and conflicts between the ruling coalition and the emerging judiciary. The military's actions against the Taliban insurgency appear to have succeeded in dislocating the homegrown terrorists but the necessary civilian effort to complement military action is still not evident. The government does not appear to have the will or the ability to muster support for longer-term reform or sustainable policies. The economy appears to have stabilized somewhat; but security, governance, and energy shortages are major challenges that require strong, consistent, incorruptible leadership rather than political brinkmanship, cronyism, and corruption that remains endemic nationwide. Recent constitutional developments offer a glimmer of hope that may allow the civilian government to restore confidence in its ability to deliver both on the domestic and external front. But the government needs to stop relying on external actors to bail it out and take matters into its own hands.
Topic:
Security, Development, Economics, Government, Governance, and Reform
Political Geography:
Afghanistan and Southeast Asia

88. Astana on the Atlantic: Transatlantic Strategy in Central Asia and the OSCE

Author:
Ross Wilson and Damon Wilson
Publication Date:
11-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Atlantic Council
Abstract:
An arc of potential disorder and instability increasingly looms over Central Asia. This year's political turmoil and ethnic violence in Kyrgyzstan illustrated the difficulties and dangers before the region –and that American interests confront there. Much of Central Asia is not succeeding economically or politically. Parts of it face the prospect of indigenous extremist violence and/or could become new safe havens for transnational threats emanating from Afghanistan. U.S. strategies that for years aimed to support the sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and success of the new Central Asian states have come to be dominated by the exigencies of the Afghan war and an increasingly unproductive conversation on human rights and democracy. As a result, those strategies are failing, and U.S. policy is being marginalized.
Topic:
Foreign Policy and Diplomacy
Political Geography:
United States, America, and Central Asia

89. Advancing U.S., African, and Global Interests: Security and Stability in the West African Maritime Domain

Author:
Kristen E. Smith and John Raidt
Publication Date:
11-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Atlantic Council
Abstract:
The United States possesses clear and compelling national interests in West Africa, particularly in the region's maritime domain. These vital security, economic, and humanitarian interests, including reliable long-term access to energy, shared largely by the African people and the international community, are at grave risk from regional instability and the increasing potential for state failures in an economically and politically distressed area of over 250 million people.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, and Terrorism
Political Geography:
Africa and United States

90. Alliance Reborn: An Atlantic Compact for the 21st Century

Author:
Hans Binnendijk, Julianne Smith, Daniel Hamilton, Charles Barry, Stephen Flanagan, and James Townsend
Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Atlantic Council
Abstract:
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.
Topic:
International Cooperation, Border Control, and Reform
Political Geography:
Europe, North America, and Atlantic Ocean