Atlantic

The author of this opinion, Marianna Albuquerque, is a 2022 alumna of the Atlantic Dialogues Emerging Leaders Program.As world leaders gather in New York for the 81st United Nations General Assembly, climate change returns to the center of multilateral diplomacy under markedly different circumstances. The debate is no longer confined to whether the world must decarbonize, but increasingly centers on how the transition will happen, who will bear its costs, who will capture ...

Recent crises in the Middle East, particularly attacks targeting commercial vessels in the Red Sea and tensions surrounding the Strait of Hormuz, have highlighted the vulnerability of the main strategic corridors of global trade. Rather than fundamentally disrupting the organization of trade flows, these crises are accelerating an ongoing transformation driven by the search for more resilient connectivity chains, the diversification of trade routes, and the development of logistics ...

Les crises récentes au Moyen-Orient, notamment les attaques ciblant les navires commerciaux en mer Rouge et les tensions autour du détroit d'Ormuz, ont mis en évidence la vulnérabilité des principaux corridors stratégiques du commerce mondial. Plus qu'un bouleversement de l'organisation des échanges, elles accélèrent une transformation déjà engagée, fondée sur la recherche de chaînes de connectivité plus résilientes, la diversification des itinéraires commerciaux et le développement ...

La géographie mondiale des hydrocarbures n'est évidemment pas figée. De nouveaux producteurs de pétrole et/ou de gaz naturel apparaissent suite à des découvertes, le plus souvent réalisées par des compagnies pétrolières internationales. On pense notamment au Mozambique, qui produit et exporte du gaz naturel liquéfié (GNL) depuis la fin 2022, au Sénégal, qui est un producteur de pétrole offshore depuis la mi-2024, et au Sénégal et à la Mauritanie, qui sont devenus conjointement expor ...

Since 2018, the Atlantic Vision exercise has provided a structured space within the Atlantic Dialogues Emerging Leaders program for successive cohorts to reflect collectively on the future of the Atlantic Basin. Each year, participants are divided into economic, political, and social working groups and tasked with identifying the region’s most pressing challenges and proposing forward-looking solutions. Over time, these reports have formed a coherent intellectual trajectory. Th ...

The 12th Atlantic Dialogues Emerging Leaders program took place from December 7 to 11, 2025, in Rabat, Morocco. From a highly competitive pool of more than 1,900 applicants representing 125 countries, 42 exceptional young professionals, aged 25 to 35, were selected. The cohort included participants from 27 countries across the Atlantic Basin, spanning Africa, Europe, and the Americas, with additional representation from Asia and Oceania, reflecting the program’s growing global reach ...

At a time when unpredictability has become a defining characteristic of international affairs, meaningful dialogue is both increasingly difficult to sustain and more essential than ever. Geopolitical rivalries, technological transformations, and mounting global fragmentation have challenged many of the assumptions that once underpinned international cooperation. In numerous instances, these developments have eroded confidence in institutions, strained partnerships, and weakened comm ...

L’Afrique atlantique émerge aujourd’hui comme un espace de réflexion stratégique majeur. Longtemps envisagée sous l’angle de sa fragmentation ou de sa marginalité relative dans les grands récits géopolitiques, cette façade maritime tend désormais à être appréhendée comme un ensemble en devenir, structuré par des dynamiques géopolitiques, économiques et sécuritaires de plus en plus intenses. C’est dans cette perspective qu’a été initié le Africa Maritime Symposium (AMS), dont la ...

PrefaceThis series of policy briefs, Pan-Atlanticism: The Atlantic Basin in a Multipolar-Transnational World, assesses the strategic significance—and potential—of the Atlantic Basin, when viewed and engaged with as a distinct and coherent region for international cooperation or governance, and as a potential arena of strategic competition, within a shifting structure of international power that is now moving from unipolarity to a new multipolar reality.The series began by tracing th ...

At the Atlantic Dialogues in December 2025, I argued that a period was underway in which trade and security could no longer be analytically or practically separated. Assessments have solidified in recent months regarding the emergence of a geoeconomic world order. Geoeconomics was a gradual transition from a purely geopolitical focus on military force, to an emphasis on economics to gain competitive advantage. It is no longer a transitional phase, but an emerging structural componen ...

This Opinion was originally published in globalpolicyjournal.com ...

There is a story told by Václav Havel, the Czech dissident writer who later became president after the fall of communism. In his essay The Power of the Powerless, Havel describes a shopkeeper who, every morning, places a sign in his window reading: “Workers of the world, unite!” He does not believe in it. Nor do the people around him. Yet the sign remains. ...

This Paper was originally published on orient-online.com  The Western Mediterranean’s exposure to the Sahel is usually framed in terms of security spillovers and crisis management. This paper argues that this framing misreads how Sahelian access conditions now shape Mediterranean integration. Morocco’s Atlantic Initiative is a state-led corridor strategy combining Atlantic port infrastructure, inland transit routes, and energy systems to connect landlocked Sahelian economi ...

This paper revisits Big Push industrialization theory in the context of open economies deeply integrated into global value chains (GVCs). While classical Big Push models emphasize demand complementarities and coordination failures in largely closed economies, many middle-income countries now industrialize through foreign-owned, import-intensive production networks. We develop an extended Big Push framework that incorporates GVC integration and import leakage, and show how these feat ...

The post-1945 international order, an architecture born of war-weariness and colonial twilight, is now a majestic but empty shell. Its foundational promise—a universal system of rules administered impartially—has been hollowed out by decades of selective enforcement, instrumentalized law, and a chasm between the rhetorical ideals of its custodians and their geopolitical practice. This is not a temporary dysfunction, but a systemic failure of legitimacy. From the invasion of Iraq und ...

In response to developing countries’ dissatisfaction with the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) of $300 billion, which was decided at the Twenty-Ninth Conference Of the Parties (COP29) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, in 2024 in Baku, Azerbaijan, the COP29 and COP30 presidencies promised to develop a roadmap to achieve $1.3 trillion in external climate finance that developing countries need, and to present it at COP30 in Belém, Brazil[1]. The two pre ...

This policy brief examines what the 2025–2026 period reveals about the future of global energy risk and the energy transition. After the shocks of 2021–2023, 2025 brought broad price easing: oil and coal prices declined as supply growth outpaced demand, and the World Bank projects further declines in the global energy price index in 2026, offering short-term relief for energy-importing economies. The brief argues, however, that the macroeconomic relevance of energy entering 202 ...

Global cooperation is under stress. It hardly requires detailed analysis: the international system is in a profound crisis, when seen from many Northern vantage points. What if we see the same turbulence but from a different vantage point? For many in the Global South the current period signals risk, but also opportunity. That the same events could spark a sense of crisis in one group but opportunity in another is nothing new. However, the sheer scale, speed, and scope of recen ...

The 12th edition of Atlantic Currents explores how the Wider Atlantic can remain a space of cooperation and renewal in an age marked by instability. As geopolitical rivalries, technological competition, and climate pressures reshape the global order, the Atlantic Basin emerges not as a periphery but as a vital arena for pragmatic partnerships, shared problem-solving, and credible collective action. This 2025 edition traces the shifting contours of the Atlantic’s strategic lands ...

This Paper was originally published on transatlantic.org The contemporary maritime domain is increasingly recognized as a geopolitical and economic space, but also as an environment intertwined with human, social, ecological, and governance systems ashore. The United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR 2024) report argues that maritime security has evolved from a narrow naval and state-centered concern into a multidimensional issue embedded in global human s ...

Le Processus des États de l’Afrique atlantique (PEAA), lancé par Sa Majesté le Roi Mohammed VI en novembre 2023, ambitionne de transformer la façade atlantique africaine — jusqu’ici morcelée et vulnérable — en un espace géopolitique cohérent, intégré et prospère. L’Initiative s’appuie sur les provinces du Sud marocain comme pont stratégique vers les vingt- trois pays riverains de l’Atlantique, et sur une vision d’ouverture Sud-Sud et euro-africaine.Malgré des disparité ...

L’autrice de cette opinion, Patricia Ahanda, est une alumna du programme Atlantic Dialogues Emerging Leaders 2018. Cette opinion a été publiée initialement sur patriciaahanda.paris Dans un monde marqué par l’émergence d’une instabilité géopolitique globale, par la non-linéarité et l’imprévisibilité croissante des rapports de force, le Maroc s’impose comme un leader pivot du Sud global. Un acteur incontournable capable de relier continents, blocs et cultures dans un mo ...

The Atlantic Initiative, announced by King Mohammed VI in November 2023 to provide landlocked Sahelian countries with access to the Atlantic Ocean via Moroccan territory, promises to profoundly reshape the bilateral relationship between Rabat and Nouakchott. This research paper examines how this unprecedented project creates new strategic opportunities while raising shared challenges for Morocco and Mauritania. Diplomatically, the rapprochement around the Atlantic Initiative unfolds ...

This paper explores the evolving legal, geopolitical, and technical dynamics surrounding the extension of the coastal shelf of Atlantic African states beyond 200 nautical miles under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). As several coastal states pursue rights over seabed areas beyond their exclusive economic zones, the paper highlights the growing strategic importance of these claims for resource access, particularly hydrocarbons and minerals, and maritime b ...

In 2019 - well before the onslaught of COVID-19 and the wars in Europe and the Middle East - the central thesis of a policy paper by this author, analyzing the relationship between Africa and the Caribbean, characterized it as one of missed opportunity due to the lack of consistent, meaningful engagement between the two regions - despite the relationship’s special significance given their shared history. Underinvested: The Caribbean African Relationship (PCNS 2019) chronicled the li ...

L’Initiative Atlantique, annoncée par le Roi Mohammed VI en novembre 2023, visant à offrir aux pays sahéliens enclavés un accès à l’océan Atlantique via le territoire marocain, promet de redessiner en profondeur la relation bilatérale entre Rabat et Nouakchott. Cet article examine comment ce projet inédit crée de nouvelles opportunités stratégiques tout en soulevant des défis partagés pour le Maroc et la Mauritanie. Sur le plan diplomatique, le rapprochement autour de l’Initiative A ...

Ce papier a été initialement publié sur legrandcontinent.eu Le long des rives orientales de l’océan Atlantique, une « grande verticale » intégrant l’Europe et l’Afrique pourrait devenir un espace stratégique pour réparer la mondialisation.  ...

This Paper was originally published on geopolitique.eu. In jointly hosting the 2030 World Cup, Spain, Morocco, and Portugal will pave the way for innovative and unprecedented regional cooperation between Europe and Africa. This “small vertical” initiative should be part of a more innovative and larger scale effort aimed at strengthening ties between the two continents in order to build what could be called an “Eastern Atlantic Community” (EAC).At a time when vertical ...

The countries of the Atlantic region continue to navigate a complex series of challenges that demand urgent and innovative responses. Economic and financial instability, social unrest, and shifting political landscapes are reshaping the region’s geopolitical dynamics. Pressing issues including unemployment, poverty, violence, extremism, climate change, and migration are intensifying, underscoring the need for sustainable and inclusive solutions. Addressing these multifaceted challen ...

The 11th edition of the Atlantic Dialogues Emerging Leaders (ADEL) program took place from December 8-12, 2024, in Rabat, Morocco. This year, 41 exceptional young professionals, aged 25 to 35, were selected from a highly competitive pool of over 1,300 applicants representing 134 countries. The cohort included participants from 23 nations across the Atlantic region, spanning Africa, Latin America, Europe, North America, and Asia. They brought expertise from a wide range of sectors, ...

The Atlantic Dialogues conference continues to serve as a premier platform for dialogue, cooperation, and bridge- building, fostering meaningful exchanges that transcend geographical and ideological divides. Since its inception in 2012, it has evolved into a dynamic space where ideas converge, diverse perspectives are shared, and innovative strategies are developed to navigate the complexities of an ever-changing world. Anchored in the foundational values of openness, inclusivity, ...

Le présent ouvrage reprend les contributions présentées à l’occasion de la première édition de la Conférence-débat sur les enjeux stratégiques des espaces maritimes de l’Afrique atlantique organisée par le Policy Center for the New South le 16 avril 2024. Une Conférence-débat qui procède d’une double logique : continuité et originalité. Une logique de continuité, d’abord, parce que l’Atlantique a toujours constitué pour le Policy Center, depuis la création du think ...

A country's areas of strategic interest are defined by its values, principles, and expectations. In this context, unprecedented opportunities are emerging for two key Atlantic States—Brazil and Morocco—to forge a mutually beneficial partnership. This premise underscores the deep-rooted social and geohistorical connections between both sides of the Atlantic. Recognizing this potential suggests that building stronger Atlantic bonds could advance shared interests, grounded in an evolvi ...

Il était une fois le G5 Sahel… En 2014, cinq pays du Sahel que sont la Mauritanie, le Mali, le Burkina Faso, le Niger et le Tchad décidèrent avec l’appui d’une puissance européenne de se constituer en un groupe d’États appelé G5 Sahel. Les cinq pays se partageaient plusieurs caractéristiques dont principalement l’aspect désertique du territoire avec une vulnérabilité conséquente aux changements climatiques, l’immensité des superficies territoriales (à l’exception du Burkina Faso), ...

Pan-Atlantic cooperation is inspired by the opportunity to foster rising, widespread, and sustainable prosperity across Atlantic Basin societies, particularly in Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). The key to unlocking this potential lies in deepening the Atlantic Basin’s already high level of intra-regional economic interdependence (when viewed as a single regional entity) and leveraging the untapped complementary opportunities within and across the Southern Atlantic. ...

This paper (see pages: 181-186), included in the report 'Foresight Africa - Top Priorities for the Continent 2025-2030,' was originally published on brookings.edu   In an increasingly fragmented world grappling with common challenges such as the global climate crisis, the Atlantic Ocean can be leveraged for Africa’s climate action, continental integration, contribution to the provision of global public goods, development, improved participation to the global economy, int ...

Le bassin Atlantique est une zone très importante pour l’industrie internationale des hydrocarbures (pétrole et gaz naturel). Elle l’est en termes de réserves, de production et d’exportation de pétrole et de gaz. De plus, son potentiel est loin d’être complètement exploité, ce qui signifie qu’elle continuera à jouer un rôle majeur dans ce secteur pendant de longues années. La partie américaine du bassin Atlantique pose d’ailleurs un sérieux problème aux pays de l’OPEP+, une coalitio ...

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, ...

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 inter ...

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, throu ...

“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 ...

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 i ...

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 ...