Month: August 2023

Rethinking Stability: Key findings and actionable recommendations

DOWNLOAD The Rethinking Stability initiative was a partnership between Interpeace, the Atlantic Council, and the Bundesakademie für Sicherheitspolitik (BAKS). The initiative was made possible thanks to the generous contributions of the German Federal Foreign Office. In the last twenty years, stabilization has become perhaps the main approach through which international actors have engaged in conflict

Russian War Report: Tensions escalate in the Black Sea as the Russian navy forcefully inspects a civilian cargo ship

As Russia continues its assault on Ukraine, the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab) is keeping a close eye on Russia’s movements across the military, cyber, and information domains. With more than seven years of experience monitoring the situation in Ukraine—as well as Russia’s use of propaganda and disinformation to undermine the United States, NATO,

Ukraine’s state authorities must follow private sector in unlearning old habits

How is the business climate in Ukraine doing as Russia’s full-scale invasion approaches the eighteen-month mark? Available data indicates that the private sector is recovering and innovating, with a non-governmental consensus forecast of around 5% GDP growth this year (albeit from a much lower conflict-affected 2022 base). This is also the sentiment you feel whenever

NATO must respond to Russia’s provocations in Belarus

Tensions have escalated in the region surrounding the Suwalki Gap, a strategically significant corridor linking Poland to Lithuania—and thus also to Latvia and Estonia. The narrow corridor is flanked by Russia’s heavily militarized Baltic enclave, Kaliningrad, and Belarus, whose leader, President Alyaksandr Lukashenka, is a supplicating ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Were Putin to

Putin must not be allowed to turn the Black Sea into a Russian lake

On July 17, Russia withdrew from the UN-brokered Black Sea Grain Initiative, striking a devastating blow to Ukraine’s economy and undermining global food security. Yet the grain shutoff is just one symptom of a much broader strategic problem. The bigger issue is that Moscow is well on its way to turning the Black Sea, which

Ukraine strikes back against Russia as world’s first drone war escalates

In recent weeks, Moscow has been hit by a series of suspected Ukrainian drone strikes. While the Ukrainian authorities typically prefer not to acknowledge responsibility for individual incidents, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has publicly warned that the war is now “returning to Russia.” Speaking in late July, Zelenskyy described the growing number of drone strikes

Photos to Add in Letters to Basic Training

Sending letters to your loved one during basic training is a powerful way to show your support and maintain a sense of connection during their time away. In today’s digital age, where emails and instant messages dominate communication, taking the time to send physical letters with cherished photos can make all the difference. Here’s how

Winter is coming: Is Ukraine’s power grid ready for new Russian attacks?

With the start of the winter heating season now just a few months away, Ukrainian officials and energy sector experts are having trouble predicting whether the country is far enough along with infrastructure repairs, gas storage, and other measures to counter the threat of renewed Russian airstrikes on the country’s civilian energy infrastructure. Although Ukraine

Why Putin’s Russia cannot accept its borders

To understand Russia’s current obsession with Ukraine, it is important to recognize that Russia was never a state in the common usage of the term. Unlike the modern Turkish state that emerged from the Ottoman Empire, or Great Britain, which acquired and lost an empire, Russia never had an identity separate from empire. As British