New Atlanticist

Show Me the Money: Trump’s Infrastructure Push Leaves One Big Question

By Cynthia L. Quarterman

Though hailed as one of US President Donald J. Trump’s key considerations in his 2018 State of the Union address, the topic of infrastructure was handled summarily in a few simple sentences that were short on substance. While there was not much to disagree with in his mention of a perennial problem plaguing and permeating […]

An Olympic Thaw on the Korean Peninsula. But for How Long?

By Rachel Ansley

Even as it supports the Olympic thaw between North and South Korea, US President Donald J. Trump’s administration is keeping up pressure on Pyongyang, evidenced by US Vice President Mike Pence’s promise that the “toughest and most aggressive” sanctions on North Korea are imminent. On February 7, two days ahead of the opening ceremonies of […]

Looking Ahead to the Next Century of Suffrage

By Kim Darroch

One hundred years ago, Parliament passed the Representation of the People Act, marking a powerful first step towards granting all British women the right to vote. The British suffragettes, led by the courageous Emmeline Pankhurst, fought for decades to secure the right to vote. They endured imprisonment and forced feedings. They were separated from their […]

Germany Muddles Through

By Nick Ottens

The center can still hold in Germany. Angela Merkel’s conservatives have finalized a government deal with the Social Democrats. Barring a last-minute upset—Social Democratic Party members need to vote before the deal can go through—Germany will be ruled by another “grand coalition” for the next four years. The worry is that this one will mostly […]

When Politics Becomes an Olympic Sport

By Ashish Kumar Sen

No matter how deft the backflips or how swift the skaters, Korean unity will likely grab the spotlight (and news headlines) at the 2018 Winter Olympics which open in Pyeongchang, South Korea, on February 9. That is because athletes from North and South Korea will march together under a unified flag at the opening ceremony […]

Donald Trump Is Not the Only One Who Likes a Grand Parade

By Ashish Kumar Sen

US President Donald J. Trump wants a military parade—a grand military parade. Trump, reportedly inspired by the Bastille Day parade he witnessed in Paris last summer, has asked the Pentagon to organize a parade down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington that [wait for it] tops the French. The reaction to Trump’s plan has ranged from skepticism […]

Taking Stock of the Transatlantic Relationship After One Year of Trump

By Ellen Scholl

Open-ended questions surrounding US relations with its European allies have direct implications for the ratcheting up of tensions and “managed competition” between the United States and Russia, according to Christine Wormuth, director of the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht Center for Resilience. Russia represents a nexus between challenges facing US policy at home and abroad, as […]

A Plan to Thwart Russian Meddling

US Rep. Will Hurd [R-TX] has a strategy to check Russian meddling in the midterm elections later this year and the US Department of Homeland Security would have a pivotal role in that plan. “We have a model that we should be thinking about when countering disinformation, and that’s CVE: Countering Violent Extremism,” said Hurd, […]

Wall Street is Freaking Out

By Ashish Kumar Sen

US stocks saw another volatile day on February 6 as ripples spread to global markets. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped more than 4 percent—a nearly 1,200-point decline—on February 5. The declines for the S&P 500 index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were the biggest single-day percentage drops since August 2011. The Dow closed […]

Our take on Donald Trump’s first State of the Union

US President Donald J. Trump delivered his first State of the Union in Washington on January 30, 2018. Read the address here. Trump touched on a diverse set of topics. We asked our analysts their thoughts on what the president had to say. Here is their take: ON THE SPEECH Trump said: “As we rebuild […]