Atlantic

The 11 edition of Atlantic Currents explores the evolving dynamics within the Atlantic region. As the world grapples with profound transformations and unprecedented challenges, the Atlantic Basin emerges as a strategically significant area, transcending the traditional perception of marginalization. The 2024 edition highlights the intensifying political, economic, and societal exchanges across the region, showcasing its potential to address shared global challenges effectively and ...

Morocco, leveraging its strategic position and proven expertise in infrastructure development, has proposed an ambitious framework to reconnect the Sahel to global supply chains via its Atlantic coastline. The Sahel’s vast distances and dispersed population have historically deterred significant infrastructure investments, perpetuating a cycle of underdevelopment. Morocco's strategic initiatives in infrastructure stand out as potentially transformative, adopting a comprehensive appr ...

This study quantifies the contributions of Brazil’s blue economy and explores the economic interdependence between coastal and hinterland regions through interregional linkages. Employing a multi-level approach, we analyze municipality and state-level data on oceanrelated activities. Using an interstate input-output model, we estimate the value chains of the blue economy, offering a deeper understanding of its systemic impacts. This study addresses gaps in national, regional, and lo ...

In an age of deep uncertainties and an increasingly unpredictable future, the Atlantic Dialogues continue to embody the essence of reasoned, high-level engagement. Held under the High Patronage of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, the 12th edition welcomed in Marrakesh over 450 distinguished participants, including high-ranking officials, decision-makers, and experts from 80 nations. The theme of the 2023 edition of the Atlantic Dialogues, “A More Assertive Atlantic: Its Meaning for t ...

Significant historical milestones have redefined global power structures and shaped the evolution of transatlantic relations. From the Peace of Westphalia to the end of the Cold War, international relations have undergone major transitions. The fall of the Soviet Union and the dissolution of the Eastern Bloc created new dynamics within the transatlantic alliance, offering both challenges and opportunities for Western countries to realign their strategies in a rapidly changing world. ...

The evolving structure of international power—from the erosion of unipolarity to the emergence of multipolarity (though still susceptible to a scenario where multipolarity evolves into a new form of bipolarity)—is giving rise to various material and ideological factors that are steering global dynamics toward a new ‘regionalization of globalization’. The real opportunity lies in not just considering a new form of regionalism, but in focusing on the potential of a new kind of region: ...

From a realist perspective, during a period of rising multipolarity, the Atlantic Basin can be identified as an emerging geostrategic region and a potential focal point of geostrategic competition, especially in the Southern Atlantic, raising the sub-basin’s strategic significance and its potential strategic autonomy. The liberal perspective – although its highest goal might be a global multilateral order – has embraced regionalism before, under the bipolar international regime of t ...

Le minilatéralisme, approche flexible et rapide de la coopération internationale, s'avère efficace pour relever des défis communs entre un petit nombre d'États. Inspiré du « Dialogue 5+5 » méditerranéen, ce concept est proposé pour renforcer la coopération euro-africaine dans l'espace atlantique, en créant un forum « 3+3 » réunissant l'Espagne, la France, le Portugal, le Maroc, la Mauritanie et le Sénégal. Ce cadre permettrait de répondre aux enjeux sécuritaires, économiques et migr ...

The Atlantic region is grappling with a host of challenges that require urgent attention. Economic and financial struggles, social unrest, and political changes are transforming the geopolitical landscape of the region. Issues including unemployment, poverty, violence, extremism, climate change, and migration are becoming more pressing, making it essential to find lasting solutions. In this context, it is crucial to create inclusive discussions between different generations and regi ...

Immigration has never been without tensions. In the United States, immigration remains a contentious issue that now, more than ever, dominates election campaigns. A 727-kilometer wall has been constructed on the US-Mexico border to halt the influx of migrants from the south. In Europe, the rise of far-right parties over the past twenty years has culminated in them becoming a major political force in the European Parliament ahead of the June 2024 elections. The tension around immigr ...

Un proverbe africain dit, seul on va plus vite ; ensemble on va plus loin. C’est dans cet esprit de l’action et du leadership collectifs que s’insère l’initiative de l’Afrique atlantique initiée par le Maroc et qui vise la création des conditions nécessaires pour la construction d’une région Afrique/Atlantique stable, prospère et tournée vers la mer. À cette première initiative s’est ajoutée une deuxième, celle de la facilitation de l’accès à la mer aux pays du Sahel, e ...

Councilwoman Roxy Ndebumadu is a technology entrepreneur, and special advisor on beneficial AI, online safety and emerging technology. As a two term-elected official, she represents the City of Bowie, the fifth largest city in Maryland. She is also a 2023 alumna of the Atlantic Dialogues Emerging Leaders program. Learn more about her here. Amidst the churning tides of globalization, in which currents of tradition meet the winds of change, there is a call for a new international c ...

The strategic significance of the southern Atlantic is growing, driven by two underlying dynamics. Firstly, we have seen the geostrategic capabilities of the southern Atlantic states and their inhabitants strengthen and the value of their strategic assets rise, despite lingering internal vulnerabilities and frequent instability, often caused by the northern Atlantic and, on occasion, Eurasia. Secondly, the way in which the southern Atlantic states are pursuing and exploiting the pot ...

In realist terms, the Southern Atlantic represents a natural partner for the powers of Eurasia—now grouped together in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)— especially for those that are, or could be, BRICS members. Pan-Atlantic cooperation is inherently of strategic interest to Eurasian countries because of its potential implications for the ultimate size of the BRICS Plus, for the degree of implication from its members in the Southern Atlantic, and for BRICS strategic goals ...

  Chadia Mathurin is a 2023 alumna of Atlantic Dialogues Emerging Leaders program. Learn more about her here.This blog was originally published here. For the past week, I've been situated in Marrakech, Morocco as part of the Policy Centre for the New South’s Atlantic Dialogues Emerging Leaders Programme and Conference. A think tank, the Policy Centre's model of engaging us as emerging leaders involved creating opportunities — over dinner, through workshops, through labs, and exper ...

Francisco Cordoba is a 2019 alumnus of Atlantic Dialogues Emerging Leaders program. Learn more about him here. This piece was originally published here. I recently had an eye-opening experience at the Atlantic Dialogue conference in Morocco, organized by the Policy Center for the New South. Picture this: a diverse gathering of leaders, policymakers, and innovators from across Africa and the Atlantic basin. It was like a mini melting pot of ideas and cultures. One intriguing conve ...

“According to realism, states exist within an anarchic international system in which they are ultimately dependent on their own capabilities, or power, to further their national interests. The most important national interest is the survival of the state, including its people, political system, and territorial integrity. Other major interests for realists include the preservation of a nation’s culture and economy. Realists contend that, as long as the world is divided into nation-st ...

The Atlantic Basin has long lacked diplomatic and political initiatives embracing it as a whole. In that regard, it stands out from other oceans, as focus on the North Atlantic has largely overshadowed the "Rest". Nevertheless, a series of recent initiatives point to a possible solution to this long institutional absence. Building on decades of reflection and recent momentum, an emerging pan-Atlanticism might be on the horizon. ...

It gives me pleasure to introduce the 2023 edition of Atlantic Currents, the annual report on Atlantic affairs which the Policy Center for the New South has issued since 2014. For this 10th edition, experts from 27 countries were invited to state their views on dynamics of interest to our shared ocean. Their respective inputs made this issue the culmination of a decade of investigation, studies, and analyses that can help understand better the multifaceted challenges and opportunit ...

The Policy Center for the New South, under the High Patronage of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, has hosted the 11th edition of its annual Atlantic Dialogues International Conference in Marrakech from December 14 to 16, 2022. Over 350 guests from 60 different countries have taken part in this first in-person edition in three years, under the theme “Cooperation in a Mutating World: Opportunities of the Wider Atlantic”. The most recent edition in this format, held in 2019 address “The S ...

The Atlantic area and its Afro-Atlantic seaboard are suffering the consequences of the global situation. We are witnessing a complex geopolitical game involving different strategies that have various processes, tactics, and objectives. The current situation reveals a paradoxical dynamic, which involves the Euro-Atlantic powers, extra- regional powers (China and Russia), and all the Afro-Atlantic countries. How is the power game organized in the Atlantic area? How does Africa9s Atlan ...

Le propos semblera tautologique à beaucoup, mais les géographies ne sont pas - seulement - des œuvres de la Création, ou le produit du hasard et des accidents de la vie de la Terre. Elles sont, presque plus fondamentalement, pourrait-on dire, le produit du regard actif de l’Homme, qui, porté sur elles, les façonne, par le travail, et par la projection de représentations mentales dans la matière. Cette capacité de l’Homme à (se) projeter (par) son regard dans l’espace visibilise les ...

The energy sector faces many challenges that undermine economic growth, energy security and access, and environmental sustainability. To address these challenges, Atlantic Basin countries need to improve access to reliable energy, diversify their energy mix with low-carbon alternatives and improve energy efficiency in the long term. However, the transition to clean energy will also create new risks and challenges that differ from one Atlantic country to another, requiring additional ...

In the delightful garden restaurant of the Marrakech hotel Mamounia, the tables had been set for hundreds of guests, 16 seated at each. Flowers had been arranged and there were crystal wine glasses. Yet, on this Wednesday, December 14 , at 7 p.m., only one table was occupied. Among the guests around it were a Turkish NATO-assigned general, Aydin Killiç, camouflaged in a dark tailored suit; a former Italian ambassador, Alessandro Minuto-Rizzo, President of the NATO Defense College Fo ...