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.

The DETER Act Will Not Deter Russia. It Will Instead Hurt US, EU Economies

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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New Atlanticist

Jun 18, 2018

The DETER Act Will Not Deter Russia. It Will Instead Hurt US, EU Economies

By Daniel Fried and Brian O'Toole

With hints that the DETER Act [the Defending Elections from Threats by Establishing Redlines Act of 2018] may be under some consideration in the National Defense Authorization Act process going on in Congress, we would like to highlight our analysis from earlier this year for consideration by any involved in the negotiations and potentially affected […]

New Atlanticist

Jun 18, 2018

Framing a Trump-Putin Meeting: A Short Guide to US-Russia Summits Past

By Daniel Fried

As we contemplate the promise and peril of the July 16 meeting between US President Donald J. Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, past US-Russia summits can provide a guide to what can go right and what can go very, very wrong when American and Russian leaders meet.

Russia United States and Canada

New Atlanticist

Jun 17, 2018

Avoiding a NATO Train Wreck

By Frederick Kempe

This much is predictable. The world’s most successful and enduring alliance, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, is facing a potential transatlantic train wreck of American making when it meets in Brussels July 11-12, its first full-fledged summit of the Trump administration. Unless President Donald Trump shifts his thinking and actions before then, a toxic political […]

NATO Security & Defense

New Atlanticist

Jun 16, 2018

Beyond the Trump-Kim Summit: A Coalition is Critical for Achieving Denuclearization

By Ashish Kumar Sen

In the wake of US President Donald J. Trump’s June 12 summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, R. Nicholas Burns, an Atlantic Council board member who served as US undersecretary of state from 2005 to 2008, discussed the tough work that lies ahead and lessons from a not too distant past.

Korea United States and Canada

New Atlanticist

Jun 15, 2018

A Call to Work Together

By Valerie Rouxel-Laxton

Institutions and fora such as the United Nations, the Bretton Woods Institutions, the World Trade Organization, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the G-groups are based on the organizing principle of multilateralism. After World War II, they have helped nation states coexist in a peaceful and relatively prosperous environment. Nowadays, they face criticism […]

International Organizations Politics & Diplomacy

New Atlanticist

Jun 15, 2018

FIFA’s Own Goal: Soccer Federation Needs to Do More to Press Russia on LGBTI Rights

By Jonny Gass

From now until July 15, one million soccer fans will descend on Russia for the twenty-first Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup, 3.4 billion people will watch from virtually every country and territory on Earth, and Russia will profit from immense global attention, an economic boon, and the fame that comes from hosting […]

Russia

New Atlanticist

Jun 14, 2018

Political Football: The World Cup’s Middle East Challengers

By Owen Daniels

The author and political thinker George Orwell was many things, but a soccer fan he was not. In an essay titled “The Sporting Spirit,” written in 1945 during then-Soviet soccer club Dynamo Moscow’s Cold War British tour, Orwell called soccer “a game in which everyone gets hurt and every nation has its own style of […]

Russia

New Atlanticist

Jun 14, 2018

Democracy in Danger: Confusing the Symptoms of Disorder with Its Cause

By Laure Mandeville and Joshua Mitchell

Speaking to the National Assembly of France a month before the French Revolution of 1848, Alexis de Tocqueville declared; “Beware, the wind of revolutions is arising; don’t you feel it?” Those gathered that day did not feel it. Today, the winds of political revolt are sweeping through the West: in the United States, Italy, Britain, […]

European Union International Organizations

New Atlanticist

Jun 13, 2018

State Department Reports Prioritize Working with Allies to Address Cyber Threats

By Klara Jordan and Anca Ioana Agachi

The United States should strengthen cooperation with its allies and partners while recognizing that cybersecurity is inextricably linked to tackling shared threats, according to recommendations made in two recent State Department reports. The reports, published by the State Department on May 31, come in response to US President Donald J. Trump’s May 2017 Executive Order […]

Cybersecurity Security & Defense

New Atlanticist

Jun 13, 2018

Here’s Why OFAC’s New Russia Sanctions are Significant

By Brian O'Toole and Daniel Fried

Set against the odd frame of US President Donald J. Trump wanting to invite Russia to govern the world as part of a reconstituted G8, the actions taken by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on June 11 to sanction Russian cyber actors were a welcome reminder that actions can speak louder than words […]

Cybersecurity Russia

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