In Season 1, Episode 6 of the Guns for Hire podcast, host Alia Brahimi is joined by her Atlantic Council colleague Emadeddin Badi. They discuss the surge of African, Syrian and Russian mercenaries in Libya since 2019, the major value-add of Wagner Group contractors in terms of mortar and sniping capabilities, and how mercenary recruitment
It was easier to approach Moscow in June than to leave it in August. Wagner Group mercenary leader Yevgeniy Prigozhin, who staged a short-lived mutiny against the Russian military two months ago, was reportedly killed in a plane crash along with nine other passengers on Wednesday while traveling from Moscow to St. Petersburg, according to
Germans call it Sommerloch, or “summer hole.” In Sweden, it’s called nyhetstorka, or “news drought.” It’s a period, usually in the dead of summer, when it seems there is less to report on and media outlets are desperate for a story. All too often during these periods, journalists and commentators chase phantom leads, overeager to
It is time for a serious conversation on how to hold Belarusian dictator Alyaksandr Lukashenka accountable for his participation in Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Lukashenka has brutally terrorized his own people for decades, stealing elections, imprisoning tens of thousands, forcing hundreds of thousands to flee Belarus for their safety, and attempting to eradicate independent
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
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
ORIGINAL SOURCE On August 10, Matthew Kroenig, Atlantic Council vice president and senior director of the Scowcroft Center, was quoted by Voice of America on how China’s lagging economic growth could raise the risk of war in the South China Sea. Kroenig believes that Chinese President Xi Jinping does not recognize that “China’s economic growth
It’s tough to tell which is more important: what did or did not happen. First, what happened: On August 10, a military junta declared a new government in Niger. This came after the junta, led by General Abdourahamane Tchiani, seized power on July 26 from Niger’s democratically elected president, Mohamed Bazoum, who remains under house
Ukraine’s long quest to secure F-16 fighter jets continues to edge forward, but there is still no clarity over when the planes may actually enter Ukrainian service. Speaking on August 8, Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh confirmed that US President Joe Biden has “given the green light to allow training to move forward,” but
Over the past weekend, Saudi Arabia hosted senior officials from more than forty countries and international organizations in Jeddah to discuss the ten-point peace plan presented last year by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He participated virtually, and the United States was represented in Jeddah by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. This was a follow-up to
