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111. Human Rights Abuses in Russia-Occupied Crimea

Author:
Andrii Klymenko
Publication Date:
08-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Atlantic Council
Abstract:
The “green men” who fanned out across Crimea in early 2014, establishing control over key infrastructure and clearing the way for once-marginal political actors to seize the reins of power, were the vanguard of a forced political change that has led to grave human rights abuses across the Crimean peninsula. Firmly in control of the executive and law enforcement bodies, the so-called Crimean authorities ostensibly implemented the law of the Russian Federation but in reality created a hybrid system where Russian law is subsidiary to the whims of “selfdefense forces” and “republican authorities.” Those forces derive their power from their weapons rather than from the support of the local population. In an environment where brute force rules the day, the international community has lost access to basic information about political, economic, and social developments on the Crimean peninsula. As a result, human rights abuses, now a regular part of life in Crimea, are left unreported or poorly understood. Freedom House and the Atlantic Council’s Dinu Patriciu Eurasia Center are proud to present Andrii Klymenko’s report, Human Rights Abuses in Russian-Occupied Crimea. His work makes an important contribution to our understanding of what has happened in Crimea since the Kremlin forcibly seized the peninsula in February 2014, setting off a crisis that is transforming security calculations in Europe and Eurasia.

112. Empowering America: How Energy Abundance Can Strengthen US Global Leadership

Author:
Senator Lisa Murkowski, Senator Mark Warner, Bud Coote, and David L. Goldwyn
Publication Date:
07-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Atlantic Council
Abstract:
Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Chairwoman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resource Committee, and Senator Mark Warner (D-VA), co-chaired the Atlantic Council Global Energy Center's US Energy Boom and National Security task force, which convened foreign policy, defense, and energy experts. The experts assessed how the United States can strengthen American leadership, advance international security, and promote global prosperity by leveraging necessary hydrocarbon export policies and deploying US prowess in energy innovation and technology to others. The task force report, Empowering America: How Energy Abundance Can Strengthen US Global Leadership, makes the case for a more robust energy strategy that capitalizes on US energy resources to advance our foreign policy and economic interests. It calls on US policymakers to repeal the crude oil export ban, ease the process of licensing for LNG exports, sustain research and investment in clean energy technology, support energy diplomacy and technical assistance abroad, advance North American energy integration efforts, and more. The report unequivocally concludes that, if properly utilized, American energy abundance will be an extremely valuable tool that favorably impacts global energy security, trade, and US foreign policy.

113. Cuba’s Economic Reintegration: Begin with the International Financial Institutions

Author:
Pavel Vidal and Scott Brown
Publication Date:
07-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Atlantic Council
Abstract:
Cuba's Economic Reintegration: Begin with the International Financial Institutions is the first major policy publication on Cuba's role in the global economic community since the December announcement of new policies toward Cuba. The team of authors include Cuban economist Pavel Vidal and former Senior IMF Economist Scott Brown, a former mission chief for Albania. Beyond examining conditions in Cuba, the report also looks to the successful reintegration of previously isolated economies such as Vietnam and Albania as possible models for Cuba. It calls on the United States to put aside longstanding objections to Cuban membership to the IFIs and for Cuban authorities to re-evaluate why this may be the moment to take steps toward engaging the international organizations. Joining the IFIs could provide necessary technical assistance to transition the economy, spur economic growth, assist with infrastructure development, and improve the lives of everyday Cubans.

114. Hiding in Plain Sight: Putin's War in Ukraine

Author:
Maksymilian Czuperski, John Herbst, Eliot Higgins, Alina Polyakova, and Damon Wilson
Publication Date:
07-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Atlantic Council
Abstract:
Russia is at war with Ukraine. Russian citizens and soldiers are fighting and dying in a war of their government's own making. Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to deny Russian involvement in the fighting, but the evidence is overwhelming and indisputable. Drawing upon open source information, Hiding in Plain Sight: Putin's War in Ukraine provides irrefutable evidence of direct Russian military involvement in eastern Ukraine.

115. The Naval Alliance: Preparing NATO for a Maritime Century

Author:
Magnus Nordenman
Publication Date:
07-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Atlantic Council
Abstract:
For more than a decade, NATO has been engaged in expeditionary ground-centric operations that have shaped the strategic thinking, capabilities, and planning of the Alliance and its members. But moving forward, NATO must also consider its role in the global maritime domain as it relates to transatlantic security and interests, as well as NATO operations. The maritime domain is increasingly competitive and contested, and the return of geopolitical competition has important maritime dimensions. Russian aggression to the east and Mediterranean turbulence to the south present unique maritime challenges for European security.

116. The Impact of Turkish Stream on European Energy Security and the Southern Gas Corridor

Author:
John Roberts
Publication Date:
07-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Atlantic Council
Abstract:
Russia has proposed building a major new pipeline intended to carry gas to customers in both Turkey and the European Union. The project, dubbed Turkish Stream, is controversial for two interconnected reasons. Firstly, it is intended to help Gazprom fulfil its stated intention of terminating gas exports to Europe via Ukraine by the end of 2019. Secondly, it is far from clear that customers in the European Union would accept delivery of gas at Turkey's border with Greece in place of current deliveries to locations in Central Europe.

117. The New Containment: Changing America's Approach to Middle East Security

Author:
Bilal Y. Saab
Publication Date:
07-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Atlantic Council
Abstract:
Securing the Middle East after an Iran nuclear deal is the next big challenge for both the region and the international community. The United States and its allies have engaged in tireless diplomacy with Iran over the past few years to produce an agreement that would limit Tehran's nuclear program for the next decade and a half. However, the hard work does not stop here; in fact, it may have just begun. To protect the deal (assuming one is finalized) and take full advantage of its potential benefits, which include the drastic reduction of the risk of nuclear weapons proliferating in the region, the United States needs a comprehensive strategy for regional security in the Middle East. A potential nuclear deal with Iran—as strategically significant as it is—is only one piece of the Middle East security puzzle

118. Technology Will Keep Changing Everything— and Will Do It Faster

Author:
Banning Garrett
Publication Date:
07-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Atlantic Council
Abstract:
It is impossible to predict what the accelerating pace of change in technology will lead to in the next twenty years. However, one can already foresee some potential geopolitical and societal impacts building on current technological developments, such as faster computers, wider and more advanced use of 3D and 4D printing, ubiquitous robotics, enhanced mobile computing with the individual at the center, widespread use of virtual and augmented reality, and creation of new designer organisms with biological building blocks. In this report, writer and independent consultant Banning Garrett lays out how these technologies are combining to create new, disruptive breakthroughs with potentially unforeseen second- and third-order effects that will alter the way we live forever.

119. Shaping the Asia-Pacific Future: Strengthening the Institutional Architecture for an Open, Rules-Based Economic Order

Author:
Olin Wethington and Robert A. Manning
Publication Date:
06-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Atlantic Council
Abstract:
A national debate is heating up about the rise of China and what it means for US national interests. The assumptions guiding US policy toward China under eight presidents, from Nixon to Obama, are being called into question. Is China seeking to overturn the existing order and displace the United States in the Asia-Pacific? Shaping the Asia-Pacific Future: Strengthening the Institutional Architecture for an Open, Rules-Based Economic Order, the first report by the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security's Project on Shaping the Asia-Pacific Future, addresses these questions. The authors—Olin Wethington, former Assistant Secretary of Treasury and Nonresident Fellow at the Scowcroft Center and Robert A. Manning, a Senior Fellow at the Scowcroft Center—assess financial, monetary, and trade trends in the region, and new challenges to the current order (such as China's Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank). The report outlines a set of recommendations for US policy that can help bring about the creation of an open, rules-based, and inclusive Asia-Pacific economic structure to foster prosperity for the United States, China, and all economies of the region.

120. RENMINBI ASCENDING: How China's Currency Impacts Global Markets, Foreign Policy, and Transatlantic Financial Regulation

Author:
Chris Brummer
Publication Date:
06-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Atlantic Council
Abstract:
A new report by the Atlantic Council, the City of London Corporation, Standard Chartered and Thomson Reuters launched today in Hong Kong, Asia, continues the highly respected Danger of Divergence series of publications examining transatlantic cooperation and takes us a crucial step closer to understanding the impact RMB internationalization will have on the global financial system and explains how different parts of the evolving Chinese financial infrastructure interact in a changing geostrategic context.