New Atlanticist

Sharp insights and bold ideas from across the Council

From climate change to the China challenge and the contest between democracy and dictatorship, the New Atlanticist is where top experts and policymakers at the Atlantic Council and beyond offer exclusive insight on the most pressing global challenges—and the US role in addressing them alongside allies and partners.

The Council’s flagship section features big ideas, groundbreaking research, lightning-fast expert reactions, in-depth analyses, and thought-provoking commentary to shape public policy.

Trump’s national security advisor touts new “streamlined” National Security Council

New Atlanticist Sep 4, 2025

Dispatches from Damascus: The state of Syria’s postwar transition nine months after Assad’s fall

On a recent trip to the Syrian capital, Atlantic Council experts took note of how far the country has come since the Assad regime’s fall and what still needs to happen to secure peace and prosperity.

New Atlanticist Aug 29, 2025

Twenty questions (and expert answers) about the negotiations to end Russia’s war in Ukraine

By Atlantic Council experts

August saw a flurry of diplomatic activity to end Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. As September nears, Atlantic Council experts share their insights on what to expect next.

Conflict Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding

New Atlanticist Aug 28, 2025

Germany wants to double its defense spending. Where should the money go?

By Atlantic Council experts

After decades of Berlin underinvesting in its defense, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has plans to transform the Bundeswehr into Europe’s strongest military.

Defense Policy Europe & Eurasia

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Dive deep into developing stories, guided by continually updated expert analysis that leaves you better informed about the most pressing global issues behind the headlines.

Markup

Our experts decipher and annotate major speeches and policy documents to break down big ideas and lay them out in plain language.

New Atlanticist

Feb 11, 2020

Trump’s national security advisor touts new “streamlined” National Security Council

By David A. Wemer

Less than five months on the job, US National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien reported that the National Security Council was in the final stages of a reorganization that would get it “back to a manageable size.” O’Brien, who succeeded John Bolton as the assistant to the president for national security affairs in October, explained that he has led a “right-sizing” of the National Security Council which will bring its total number of staffers from 175 to 110 by the end of the month.

China
Economy & Business

New Atlanticist

Feb 11, 2020

US taking right approach with China over coronavirus, former White House official says

By David A. Wemer

As world leaders attempt to halt the spread of the novel coronavirus, the United States has been correct to take “a soft touch approach to the relationship with Beijing,” former US homeland security advisor Thomas P. Bossert said at the Atlantic Council on February 11.

China
Coronavirus

New Atlanticist

Feb 10, 2020

Will the Commission’s new EU proposal revive Western Balkans enlargement?

By David A. Wemer

“For a region whose politics, both domestic and foreign, have been shaped by the promise of EU membership in almost every way since the 1990s, the coming months and years will prove trying," Damir Marusic says.

Democratic Transitions
European Union

New Atlanticist

Feb 7, 2020

In an era of great-power competition, procurement reform not more regulation for the defense industrial base

By Tate Nurkin

What strategic gains can DoD realize from being a better customer? Given the reluctance of the US commercial sector to engage in defense work and the speedy innovation of our rivals, reform is needed.

Defense Industry
Defense Policy

New Atlanticist

Feb 7, 2020

US will use energy revolution to transform its foreign policy, energy secretary says

By David A. Wemer

The United States’ transformation into a net exporter of energy “has revolutionized our foreign policy, and it frees us to pursue options that we have not had at least in my lifetime,” US Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette said on February 7. Speaking at the Atlantic Council, Brouillette argued that “with US energy production now at record levels, the world is no longer subject to the will of countries who seek to do us harm,” such as Russia and Iran, and allows the United States to use energy cooperation and investment as a key tool to advance its foreign policy aims.

Brazil
Energy Markets & Governance

New Atlanticist

Feb 7, 2020

The Yalta Conference at seventy-five: Lessons from history

By Daniel Fried

One lesson is that core values may have more viability than it seems, especially in the long term: for two generations after 1945, foreign policy professionals and scholars concluded that Roosevelt’s weak defense of Poland at and immediately after Yalta was pointless (or cynical) and that the principles of the Atlantic Charter were inapplicable east of the Iron Curtain. Soviet domination there, it was implicitly (and sometimes explicitly) accepted, was forever. But it turned out otherwise. The Yalta Conference failed but Yalta Europe was not forever. The strategic vision that Roosevelt spelled out in the Atlantic Charter and sought to realize at Yalta—even if miserably—now seems the right one.

Central Europe
Politics & Diplomacy

New Atlanticist

Feb 7, 2020

Sheldon Whitehouse implores US leaders to get serious about carbon capture and climate policy

By Zachary Strauss

US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) blasted the US Government for its delay in implementing carbon capture and storage (CCS) legislation and the US Congress for refusing to adopt serious carbon pricing reform during remarks to the Atlantic Council on February 4. Whitehouse rebuked the US Department of the Treasury for dragging its feet on implementing the ”45Q” CCS tax credit.

Climate Change & Climate Action
United States and Canada

New Atlanticist

Feb 5, 2020

Albania still committed to EU membership, PM says

By David A. Wemer

Despite continued delays in the opening of accession negotiations with the European Union, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said that his country remains committed to pursuing EU membership because “there is no alternative.” Speaking at the Atlantic Council on February 5, Rama reported that Albania is continuing with its planned reforms as European leaders debate the proper time to begin the membership process for Albania and its neighbor North Macedonia. “We are not sitting and crying,” Rama said. Albania is “not waiting for some miracle to happen.”

Democratic Transitions
European Union

New Atlanticist

Feb 5, 2020

Kenyan president says global leaders must see Africa as “the world’s biggest opportunity”

By David A. Wemer

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta implored an Atlantic Council audience on February 5 to see Africa as “more than just a continent producing security threats or unregulated migration that must be contained,” but rather as a region that has “immense strategic importance to the security and prosperity of the transatlantic alliance.”

Africa
Democratic Transitions

Event Recap

Feb 5, 2020

Prime minister promises “Sudan will never be the same again”

By David A. Wemer

Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok became the first Sudanese leader to travel to Washington, DC in more than thirty years, seeking to win more international support for his transitional government as it tries to guide Sudan towards democracy. “There is a success story that is emerging” in Sudan, Hamdok told an audience at the Atlantic Council on December 5. In a “region full of crises and riddled with conflicts, Sudan provides hope,” Hamdok declared.

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