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121. US-Brazil Relations: A New Beginning? How to Strengthen the Bilateral Agenda

Author:
Ricardo Sennes
Publication Date:
06-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Atlantic Council
Abstract:
A new Atlantic Council report launched today calls on the two Presidents to move beyond the usual working groups and outline an ambitious path forward. The Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center's report, titled US-Brazil Relations: A New Beginning? How to Strengthen the Bilateral Agenda, offers five recommendations: Support investment competiveness by implementing a double taxation agreement. Eliminate trade barriers starting with facilitating trade in services and opening the doors to greater collaborating on clean energy and technology trade. Prioritize collaboration on technology and innovation by incentivizing dual-use technologies and scientific cooperation. Bolster technology cooperation and new investments in education Define a cornerstone political agreement that serves as the bedrock of the relationship.

122. Prioritization in EU Energy Policy: Energy Security First, then Energy Union

Author:
Alan Riley
Publication Date:
06-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Atlantic Council
Abstract:
The European Commission's "Energy Union" Communication, published on February 25, 2015, purports to provide the European Union (EU) with a comprehensive energy strategy. The Communication aims to simultaneously push forward the climate change agenda by deploying more renewables, while improving the level of energy efficiency, launching a major infrastructure program, and completing the energy single market. All of these objectives are necessary to establish a functioning, dynamic, liquid, and modern European energy market. The danger, however, is that the European Union's key energy security risk—the supply threat from the Russian Federation and in particular the risk related to the dominant natural gas supplier, the Kremlin-controlled energy giant Gazprom—is not prioritized amid the Communication's broader objectives. Currently, the significant supply risk falls upon a group of states in Central and Eastern Europe, the Baltic states, and Finland.

123. Through a New Prism: A Next Generation Strategy for the US-German Relationship

Author:
The Editors
Publication Date:
06-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Atlantic Council
Abstract:
Twenty-five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the US-German relationship faces new challenges. While official cooperation and interaction between Berlin and Washington continue to be robust on a wide range of issues, the German and American publics have grown less familiar with each other. Diminishing personal ties between the two peoples threaten to do lasting damage to bilateral relations and the transatlantic relationship, and younger Germans in particular are raising questions.

124. A Transatlantic Approach to Europe’s East: Relaunching the Eastern Partnership

Author:
Frances Burwell
Publication Date:
05-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Atlantic Council
Abstract:
On May 20-21, 2015, European leaders will gather for the Eastern Partnership summit in Riga, Latvia, to discuss the future of Europe's East. Given the extreme challenges faced by the countries of the Eastern Partnership (EaP) since the last summit, in Vilnius, Lithuania in 2013, and the cooling of EU relations with several of the Eastern Partners, the upcoming meeting will surely pose tough questions for the future of the entire eastern framework.

125. Harnessing Social Impact Investing

Author:
Gabriel Sanchez Zinny
Publication Date:
05-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Atlantic Council
Abstract:
The solutions for socioeconomic development are no longer only in the public sector. Latin America has changed dramatically over the last decade, and the private sector can play an increasingly important role in the region's progress. That's where social impact investing comes in—a way that investors can make money while doing social good. The White House has appointed a social innovation czar and the Inter-American Development Bank is doing work every day in this expanding arena. Is social impact investing one of the keys that will finally unlock the region's intractable inequality?

126. NATO Transformation Seminar

Author:
Atlantic Council
Publication Date:
05-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Atlantic Council
Abstract:
NATO is confronting the most rapid negative change in its security environment since its founding, compelling Allies to refocus on collective defense in Europe and re-examine the relevance of NATO’s strategy. While this effort started in advance of NATO’s previous summit in Wales, the Alliance’s latest adaptation has only just begun. The crises of today combined with long-term trends require both urgency to NATO’s responses and a sustained commitment to its transformation. NATO’s July 2016 Warsaw Summit offers a compelling opportunity to significantly advance this adaptation.

127. Young Professionals Day 2015 Report

Author:
Atlantic Council
Publication Date:
04-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Atlantic Council
Abstract:
The Atlantic Council, in partnership with NATO Allied Command Transformation (ACT), held the 4th annual Young Professionals Day (YP Day) in Washington, DC, on March 24. The event featured a full-day, outcome-oriented, strategic design thinking exercise with sixty young professionals representing twenty-four of NATO's twenty-eight member nations. Delegates collaborated to produce a list of creative solutions to pressing challenges NATO faces, ranging from how to address hybrid warfare and threats on NATO's southern flank, to how NATO can encourage innovation and deliver on the promises from the 2014 Wales Summit.

128. Dynamic Stability: US Strategy for a World in Transition

Author:
Barry Pavel, Peter Engelke, and Alex Ward
Publication Date:
04-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Atlantic Council
Abstract:
We have entered a new era in world history, a post-post-Cold War era that holds both great promise and great peril for the United States, its allies, and everyone else. We now can call this a "Westphalian-Plus" world, in which nation-states will have to engage on two distinct levels: dealing with other nation-states as before, and dealing with a vast array of important nonstate actors. This era calls for a new approach to national strategy called "dynamic stability."

129. Setting the Stage for Peace in Syria: The Case for a Syrian National Stabilization Force

Author:
Frederic C. Hof, Bassma Kodmani, and Jeffrey White
Publication Date:
04-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Atlantic Council
Abstract:
After four years of conflict in Syria, peace is still a distant prospect. The West insists that there is no "military solution," while Iran and Russia provide the Assad regime with a military advantage obstructing the possibility of real diplomatic negotiations. With over 220,000 Syrians dead and more than half of the Syrian population displaced, the need for peace is critical. In Setting the Stage for Peace in Syria: The Case for a Syrian National Stabilization Force, Frederic C. Hof of the Atlantic Council's Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, Bassma Kodmani of the Arab Reform Initiative, and Jeffrey White of the Washington Institute, present a new way forward—a sort of train-and-equip on steroids—the Syrian National Stabilization Force (SNSF).

130. Managing Differences on European Security in 2015

Author:
Russian International Affairs Council and the European Leadership Network Atlantic Council
Publication Date:
03-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Atlantic Council
Abstract:
This report is the result of a series of brainstorming sessions that took place between the summer of 2013 and the winter of 2014-2015, and between American, Russian, and European experts. The teams were led by Ellen Tauscher, the Vice Chair of the Atlantic Council's Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security and the former US Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, and Igor Ivanov, the president of Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) and former Foreign Minister of Russia, in an effort to keep the dialogue open and frank at a challenging time for European security. Not surprisingly, as events in Ukraine unravelled the post-Cold War security order, it proved impossible to narrow the differences and develop a common, action-oriented approach to the challenge of rebuilding the European security order. The report, a project of the Atlantic Council, the European Leadership Network (ELN), and RIAC is focused instead on the necessary first step of listening to each other and reflecting on the significant differences in the Western and Russian approaches. Discussions focused on gaining clarity on the interests at stake, from the US, European, and Russian perspectives, in order to better define whether and where common interests may still lie and how best to advance them. The report clearly points to the fact that managing the differences in the aftermath of the Ukrainian crisis will continue to require significant efforts on the part of decision-makers, experts, officials, international organizations, and will take time and strategic patience.