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.

New Atlanticist
Mar 6, 2025

How European leaders are responding to Trump’s approach to Ukraine and Europe

From London and Berlin to Paris and Brussels, European leaders have taken several notable steps this week on security. This follows the blow-up between the Ukrainian and US presidents on February 28.

New Atlanticist
Feb 26, 2025

Why the US should not lift sanctions against Russia

By
Charles Lichfield

Sanctions are having an unmistakable effect, albeit below the inflated expectations of many in the West in early 2022. Lifting them now would be a mistake.

Conflict
Economic Sanctions

New Atlanticist
Mar 5, 2025

The Egyptian plan for postwar Gaza is a good starting point—but it needs changes

By
Thomas S. Warrick

While many obstacles remain, the Egyptian proposal could form the starting point for negotiations over a workable plan for postwar Gaza.

Conflict
Crisis Management

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New Atlanticist

Aug 7, 2018

Enlarge NATO to Ensure Peace in Europe

By Damon Wilson and David J. Kramer

Exactly ten years ago, Russian forces attacked Georgia, bringing to a violent end a nearly two-decade long advance of a Europe whole and free. In the wake of NATO’s failure to agree on how to advance the membership aspirations of Georgia and Ukraine at its Bucharest Summit months earlier, Moscow acted to block those prospects […]

Russia The Balkans

New Atlanticist

Aug 7, 2018

Ankara and Washington Reach a Boiling Point over American Pastor Imprisonment

By David Wemer

This piece is part of a two part series on current US-Turkey relations. See the first piece here. Relations between Turkey and the United States may have hit a new low after the US Department of the Treasury sanctioned two Turkish government officials in response to the imprisonment of an American pastor in Turkey on […]

Turkey

New Atlanticist

Aug 7, 2018

US-Turkey relations: From alliance to crisis

By Defne Arslan, Pinar Dost, and Grady Wilson

The historically strong US-Turkey relationship has been tested in recent years by a seemingly never-ending series of disagreements and crises. After each development, commentators claim again and again that US-Turkey relations have never been so bad.

Turkey

New Atlanticist

Aug 6, 2018

Non-Tariff Barriers: Can the EU and the United States Make Progress on Trade?

By Barbara C. Matthews and Earl Anthony Wayne

On July 25, the European Union and the United States took an important step in de-escalating the threat of a trade war by agreeing to not only begin walking back US tariffs on European steel and aluminum and Europe’s retaliatory measures, but also by starting to discuss an ambitious forward-looking agenda for reducing trade barriers […]

Economy & Business European Union

New Atlanticist

Aug 6, 2018

First Wave of Resumed Iran Sanctions Targets Automobiles, Currency, and Gold

By Holly Dagres

As part of the United States’ withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the US Treasury Department will restore sanctions on a number of key Iranian sectors and activities on August 6. Here’s what you need to know about this set of sanctions:

Iran

New Atlanticist

Aug 6, 2018

20 Years After the Embassy Bombings: The Long War in Africa

By J. Peter Pham

It has been twenty years since that morning of August 7, 1998, when suicide bombers detonated, almost simultaneously, trucks laden with explosives outside the United States embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The attacks, the first claimed by al-Qaeda against US targets, left 224 people dead, including a dozen Americans, and around […]

East Africa

New Atlanticist

Aug 5, 2018

After Failed Assassination Attempt, Expect Maduro to Lash Out in Venezuela

By Ashish Kumar Sen

The Venezuelan regime will likely turn even more repressive in the wake of a purported attempt to assassinate President Nicolás Maduro in Caracas on August 4, according to Jason Marczak, director of the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center. Maduro was delivering a speech at a celebration of the 81st anniversary of Venezuela’s National […]

Venezuela

New Atlanticist

Aug 3, 2018

Congress to NATO: We Have Your Back

By David Wemer

With concern rising on both sides of the Atlantic about Washington’s commitment to the transatlantic alliance, NATO’s newest champion is also one of its oldest supporters: The United States Congress. On August 1, a group of twenty US senators met privately with NATO officials and ambassadors from allied governments to make clear that the American […]

NATO Security & Defense

New Atlanticist

Aug 3, 2018

Uncertainty and a Need for Leadership After Zimbabwe’s Election

By David Wemer

After days of uncertainty, protests, and violence following Zimbabwe’s July 30 presidential and parliamentary elections, “everyone has got to take deep breath,” Dr. J Peter Pham, the Atlantic Council’s Vice President for Research and Regional Initiatives and the Director of the Council’s Africa Center said. In the early hours of August 3, the Zimbabwe Electoral […]

South & Central Africa

New Atlanticist

Aug 2, 2018

South Sudan must end the arbitrary detention of Peter Biar Ajak

By Frederick Kempe, Damon Wilson, and Daniel Bennett

We urge the government of South Sudan to end the arbitrary detention of Peter Biar Ajak, an alumnus of the Atlantic Council Millennium Fellowship, who was arrested in Juba July 28, 2018.

East Africa

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