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.

Mr. Macron Goes to Washington: Risks And Rewards of This Week’s State Visit

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.

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

New Atlanticist

Apr 23, 2018

Mr. Macron Goes to Washington: Risks And Rewards of This Week’s State Visit

By Nicholas Dungan

Emmanuel Macron’s state visit to Washington this week brings with it two significant risks and two singular opportunities. By now the French president is well recognized as being the world leader most esteemed by, and in closest contact with, the US President Donald J. Trump. Here lie the risks.

France United States and Canada

New Atlanticist

Apr 23, 2018

Europe Needs To Persuade Iran, Not Just Trump, To Save The Nuclear Deal

By Barbara Slavin

As French President Emmanuel Macron arrives in Washington, a top priority will be convincing his American counterpart to stay within the landmark nuclear agreement with Iran. But judging from this analyst’s conversations with Iranian diplomats in Europe and New York over the past week, Macron and his colleagues in Germany and Britain may have an […]

France Germany

New Atlanticist

Apr 23, 2018

Macron And Merkel Come to Washington. Lend Them Your Ear

By Daniel Fried

The free world (to put it in Washington wonk speak: the “rules-based, liberal global order”), the product of American leadership, which generated relative peace, prosperity, and democracy after 1945 and even more after 1989, faces aggression from without, most acutely from Russia; a long-range challenge from the rise of China; and, most alarming, doubts from […]

France Germany

New Atlanticist

Apr 20, 2018

What Fueled Trump’s Tweet on Oil Prices?

By Bina Hussein

An increase in gas prices in the United States may have pushed US President Donald J. Trump to criticize the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in a tweet on April 20. “Oil prices are artificially Very High! No good and will not be accepted!” Trump tweeted as OPEC and non-OPEC members met in […]

New Atlanticist

Apr 20, 2018

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and The Art of Living

By Rachel Ansley

Compassion and cooperation are key to dealing with global conflict, one of India’s renowned spiritual leaders, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, said at the Atlantic Council in Washington on April 19. “The value of compassion, of cooperation…should be emphasized more than aggression,” said Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, founder of the Art of Living Foundation. “When we […]

India

New Atlanticist

Apr 19, 2018

Cuba’s new president sails into choppy waters

By Ashish Kumar Sen

For the first time in sixty years, Cuba will be led by a man whose last name is not Castro. However, this reality is unlikely to herald change in Cuba or soften US President Donald J. Trump’s hard line toward the island that sits just ninety miles off the US coast, according to the Atlantic Council’s Jason Marczak.

Cuba Venezuela

New Atlanticist

Apr 18, 2018

Mike Pompeo’s Secret Mission to Pyongyang

By Robert A. Manning

The remarkable news that CIA Director and US Secretary of State nominee Mike Pompeo made a secret trip to North Korea where he met North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un is a measure both of the head-spinning pace of diplomacy on the Korean Peninsula and of the seriousness with which US President Donald J. Trump’s administration […]

Korea United States and Canada

New Atlanticist

Apr 18, 2018

Costa Rica’s new president has his work cut out

By Alberto Matamoros

Carlos Alvarado Quesada’s election as president of Costa Rica on April 1, which defied every recent opinion poll, marks the rejection by Costa Ricans of fundamentalist populism. The thirty-eight-year-old ruling party candidate—a former labor minister, musician, journalist, and novelist—won 60 percent of the vote. Despite taking place amidst rampant corruption, rising crime and inequality, and […]

New Atlanticist

Apr 18, 2018

From Steel Tariffs to an Awesome Trade Deal

By Frances G. Burwell

US President Donald J. Trump’s imposition of tariffs on steel and aluminum imports into the United States has been a significant blow to the US-European Union (EU) economic partnership, but this episode also offers a real opportunity. Though the EU has been exempted from penalties until May 1, the mere prospect of future tariffs has […]

European Union International Organizations

New Atlanticist

Apr 17, 2018

Beyond Syria: Moscow’s Objectives in the Middle East

By Stephen Blank

Syria’s civil war has come close to provoking direct kinetic clashes between the United States and Russia. Yet, despite the urgency to understand both sides’ goals, hardly anyone is assessing Russia’s overall objectives in the Middle East. Syria might be the most urgent issue of what the late Zbigniew Brzezinski called the Eurasian Balkans, but […]

Middle East Russia

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