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
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
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
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’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
As the Arctic continues to be fundamentally reshaped, the United States and its allies in the region will need to quickly adapt by strengthening their collective security and expanding their Arctic awareness. Arctic-ready unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) can help them adjust to the changing landscape. The transformation of the Arctic—one of the world’s harshest environments—is
VILNIUS—Drafting NATO Summit communiqués is usually less the stuff of high drama and more mind-numbing bureaucracy. But that wasn’t the case this week. The NATO Summit in Lithuania will be remembered both for the public fireworks over Ukraine’s aspirations for Alliance membership and outcomes that included a breakthrough on Swedish membership, the most detailed and robust defense
JUST IN It’s a fast track with a slow start. NATO leaders meeting in Vilnius today released their summit communiqué, in which they said that Ukraine no longer needs to complete a membership action plan to join the Alliance—but that an invitation would only be extended “when allies agree and conditions are met.” In the
A version of this article originally appeared in El Mundo. It has been translated from Spanish by the staff of Palacio y Asociados and is reprinted here with the author’s and publisher’s permission. Two weeks have passed, and few clues have emerged from the theatrical failed coup in Russia. It was closely followed by millions of
VILNIUS—Here’s an easy way to judge the success of NATO’s summit here on Tuesday and Wednesday: Will President Volodymyr Zelenskyy join the traditional “family photo” of the Alliance’s thirty-one leaders? “The summit has only one essential outcome,” Doug Lute, a former US ambassador to NATO and member of the Atlantic Council’s board of directors, told
