Featured Publications
NATO's Nuclear Policy in 2010
U.S.-Iran Relations: Policy Compendium
Article 5 and Strategic Reassurance
NATO Reform and Decision-Making
The U.S., NATO and the EU: Partnership in the Balance
Council Highlights
Damon Wilson: Congressional Testimony on Post-Election Ukraine
Damon Wilson, Atlantic Council Vice President and Director, International Security Program, testified before the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (U.S. Helsinki Commission) on March 16.
Stephen Hadley Calls for New Phase of U.S.-China Relations
In a luncheon address at the 3rd U.S.-China Project on Crisis Avoidance & Cooperation Track 1.5 conference in Beijing, Atlantic Council Board member, former national security adviser and current senior adviser for international affairs at the United States Institute of Peace, Stephen J. Hadley, spoke about U.S.-China relations 30 years after the establishment of full diplomatic relations.
Shuja Nawaz: Congressional Testimony on Islamist Militancy in Pakistan
Shuja Nawaz, director of the Atlantic Council's South Asia Center, testified before the House Foreign Relations Committee Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia on March 11.
Damon Wilson Discusses NATO, Turkey and Azerbaijan
Damon Wilson, vice president and director of the Atlantic Council Program on International Security, was interviewed by Leyla Tagiyeva of Azerbaijani news site News.Az about U.S.-Turkey relations in the context of NATO and its role in the Caucasus region.
FEATURED ISSUE
Eurozone Crisis: Threat of Sovereign Debt Default
The Atlantic Council's Global Business and Economics Program hosted a conference call with Professor Leszek Balcerowicz on the Euro debt crisis.
Poland
Rasmussen: NATO Must Develop Missile Defense
Jorge Benitez | March 12, 2010From NATO: [W]e must develop an effective missile defence. In the coming years, we will probably face many more countries – and possibly even some non-state actors -- armed with long-range missiles and nuclear capabilities. Therefore, I believe that NATO’s deterrent posture should include missile defence. Deterrence works against rational actors, but not all actors that we will have to deal with in the future will be rational. That’s why deterrence and defence need to go together. And why we have the obligation to look into missile defence options. Excerpt from Speech by NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen at Strategic Concept Conference in Warsaw. (photo: NATO)
Energy Security in Europe: Central Questions
Jorge Benitez | March 05, 2010From the Economist: At a summit in Budapest on February 24th Visegrad showed signs of renewed life. The big shift is in Poland, where go-it-alone policies have given way to enthusiasm for working with the neighbours. Under the voting rules of the Nice treaty, in force until 2014, Visegrad countries have as many votes in the EU as France and Germany combined. Next year Hungary and Poland will each have six months in the EU’s rotating presidency. Eurocrats in Brussels like to portray the rotating presidency as largely redundant now there is a permanent European Council president. The Poles and Hungarians are working closely together to disprove this. Hungary wants a “Danube strategy” to divert EU money and attention to the river basin. Poland supports this, in return for Hungarian backing for more EU aid to countries such as Georgia, Moldova and Belarus...
NATO Plans Military Exercises Near Russian Border
Jorge Benitez | March 04, 2010From RIA Novosti: NATO has announced it will hold military exercises involving fighter planes over the Baltic Sea this month, the first in a series of military drills to be held this year near the Russian border. The Baltic Region Training Event training mission will take place over the former Soviet republics of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, and will involve French Mirage 2000C, Polish F-16, and Lithuanian L-39 Albatross fighters, along with U.S. aerial tankers. The exercises will demonstrate "NATO solidarity and commitment to its member countries in the Baltic region," a spokesman for the Allied Air Headquarters said. The military events will continue in June in northern Estonia, where up to 500 U.S. Marines and Estonian soldiers will be involved in a ten-day drills about a hundred km from the Russian border, Russia's Kommersant daily said on Thursday.
Latvia and Lithuania Propose Stricter EU Rules to Stop Mistral Sale
Jorge Benitez | February 28, 2010From Itar-Tass: Latvia and Lithuania demand stricter arms trade rules in the European Union and NATO in order to prevent the selling of Mistral helicopter ships to Russia.
U.S. Patriot Missiles in Poland Early April
Jorge Benitez | February 22, 2010From Reuters: Poland is set to host a battery of U.S. Patriot missiles and the American troops to man it from the start of April, PAP news agency said Sunday. "The Defense Ministry expects the first stage of the stationing of a Patriot air-defense battery and a 100-man service team to get under way in the (northern) town of Morag at the turn of April," the agency said. The Patriots are part of a Polish-U.S. agreement signed last December to upgrade the NATO member's air defenses, following Washington's decision last September to scrap a Bush-era Missile Shield incorporating installations in Poland and the neighboring Czech Republic.
Missile Defence in Europe: The Next Salvo
Jorge Benitez | February 19, 2010From the Economist: If American technology develops as expected, by 2018 the new shield would cover almost all of NATO’s European members against an Iranian attack—only a small part of Turkey would be exposed. That is a big change from the previous scheme, which was intended mainly to protect America from an intercontinental threat, leaving chunks of Europe unprotected. The new system poses even less of a threat to Russia’s nuclear arsenal (the Americans say neither ever did). The SM-3 interceptors now planned have a shorter range and fly less quickly than the rockets proposed by the Bush administration. Moreover, much of the system—the tracking radars and the Romania-based interceptors—will be deployed further south, unable to interfere with Russian missiles heading for America over the Arctic.
Poland to Host NATO Exercises?
Jorge Benitez | February 18, 2010From Polskie Radio: Poland is lobbying to host the NATO Response Force (NRF) maneuvers on its territory. According to the daily Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland having the opportunity to host such military exercises would increase the country’s security. NATO maneuvers could be a response to the joint exercises of the Russian and Belorussian armies planned in the Kaliningrad region, neighbouring Poland, and a demonstration that the Alliance is ready to defend Poland’s territory in case of an eventual attack - although the ministry has not officially confirmed the claim. “The maneuvers could take place in the south or in the west as long as they do take place in Poland” says Defense Minister Bogdan Klich in the paper. (photo: Polskie Radio)
FEATURED EVENT
Estonian President Ilves: The Future of NATO

Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves addressed the Atlantic Council on March 19 as part of the Global Leadership Series. Atlantic Council Board Director and CEO of LexisNexis, Andrew Prozes, provided introductory remarks while Frederick Kempe, President and CEO of the Atlantic, moderated the Q&A session.
James Steinberg: Foreign Policy Priorities of the Obama Administration

On March 15, Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg delivered remarks at the Atlantic Council, outlining the foreign policy approach the Obama administration has taken since taking office over a year ago.
U.S. Force Posture in Europe

On March 18, the Atlantic Council hosted a conference with senior administration officials, experts, and authoritative Europeans to assess the alternative futures for U.S. force posture in Europe. The event, generously sponsored by Booz Allen Hamilton with support from L-3 Services Group, featured Dr. Janine Davidson, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Plans, U.S. and European points of view in two separate panels, and Representative Jim Marshall (D-GA), Member of the House Armed Services Committee.
NATO Nuclear Policy

The Atlantic Council and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation co-hosted a panel discussion on the future of NATO Nuclear Policy, based on the recent publication of two reports from FES/SIPRI and the Atlantic Council's Strategic Advisors Group on the issue.
FEATURED INTERVIEW
Euro Debt Crisis: A Discussion with Currency Strategist Marc Chandler

In his latest New Atlanticist Podcast, Atlantic Council senior fellow Sarwar Kashmeri addresses the Euro debt crisis and the recent hedge fund betting of over $8 billion in short positions against the common EU currency. He talks with Marc Chandler, the Chief Currency Strategist for the investment bank Brown Brothers Harriman and author of Making Sense of the Dollar.

















