Books
Read the PublicationTurkey, a NATO ally, bridges a region spanning from Central Asia to Central Europe and the Levant that is marred by centuries of division and conflict, but whose nations and people are also bound together. Following an attempted military coup in 2016 and widespread government crackdowns across Turkish society, where Turkey is headed is uncertain. In Turkey’s European Journey, Sir Peter Westmacott, who recently retired as one of the United Kingdom’s most revered diplomats, provides his first-hand account of Turkey’s recent history—helping us understand how Turkey got to where it is today, and providing clues about where the country might be headed.
Following the release of a short report in December 2015, the Atlantic Council and the Primakov Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO) have now released the full volume of research behind the report, Global System on the Brink: Pathways toward a New Normal. The longer book goes in-depth on the findings and recommendations using detailed quantitative modeling and qualitative analysis.
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"The authors in this anthology invite us to shed the shackles that bind us to our current constructs and instead imagine things as they might be, for better or for worse."
- Martin Dempsey, foreword to War Stories from the Future
War Stories from the Future is the culmination of the Atlantic Council Art of Future Warfare project's first year exploring the future of armed and social conflict.
Africa is destined to present the United States with both significant challenges and extraordinary opportunities in the coming years, far more than has been the case in the recent past. It could hardly be otherwise thanks to the complex reality Africa presents. Divergent political, security, and economic trends exist across 54 African countries, presenting U.S. policymakers with a wide range of choices as they chart new partnerships in an increasingly dynamic region. While the United States has no formal alliances in sub-Saharan Africa, or even in Arab North Africa for that matter, it does have a bountiful variety of partnership relations, several of which contain a security component. That bounty is bound to increase in the years ahead.
A new book, The Next Africa: An Emerging Continent Becomes a Global Powerhouse, by Africa Center Visiting Fellow Aubrey Hruby and coauthor Jake Bright, captures this story.
The world is in the throes of a nearly decade-long global democratic recession. Democratic breakdowns in strategically important countries like Russia, Pakistan, Egypt, and Venezuela are cause for serious concern, as are reversals in Turkey and Hungary. Using a combination of repression and noncoercive tools, governments are shutting down space for civil society around the world. Is Authoritarianism Staging A Comeback? offers answers to why authoritarianism is gaining on democracy—and what the international community can do about it.
'The Modern Mercenary' author McFate says contractors fill security vacuum left by departing troops
One of the biggest fallacies in Washington is that once the United States is done with private security contractors in Afghanistan and elsewhere they will simply pack their bags and head home, says Sean McFate.
In fact, these private armies go in search of new clients and conflicts.
As US and coalition troops withdraw from Afghanistan they are leaving behind a security vacuum that is being filled by private security contractors — an industry that has flourished since the Iraq war in 2003.
Some contractors may go to Iraq, while others are protecting international shipping in the pirate-infested waters off Africa.
“If the United States wants to be a global power with global presence all the time and be able to project power, but Americans themselves do not want to have to go to war, then it seems that contracting is not going to go away,” says McFate, a former US Army paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division who later worked with the private security firm DynCorp International.
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A Fierce Domain: Conflict in Cyberspace, 1986-2012 is the first book of its kind — a comprehensive, accessible history of cyber conflict. A Fierce Domain reaches back to look at the major “wake-up calls,” the major conflicts that have forced the realization that cyberspace is a harsh place where nations and others contest for superiority. The book identifies the key lessons for policymakers, and, most importantly, where these lessons greatly differ from popular myths common in military and political circles.
