New Atlanticist

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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.

Russians Charged with Meddling in 2016 US Election

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.

Read More

Russians Charged with Meddling in 2016 US Election

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

Russians Charged with Meddling in 2016 US Election

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

Feb 16, 2018

Russians Charged with Meddling in 2016 US Election

By Ashish Kumar Sen

Thirteen Russians and three Russian entities have been indicted by a grand jury for interfering in the US presidential elections in 2016, US Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office said on February 16. The thirty-seven-page indictment alleges that Russians’ operations “included supporting the presidential campaign of then-candidate Donald J. Trump…and disparaging Hillary Clinton,” Trump’s Democratic opponent, […]

Russia

New Atlanticist

Feb 16, 2018

The Kurdish challenge that is bedeviling the US-Turkish relationship

By Tulin Daloglu

US support for a Kurdish militia in Syria has become a point of contention in the US-Turkey relationship. Who are the Kurds and why is US support so contentious?

Turkey

New Atlanticist

Feb 16, 2018

The Munich Security Conference and Transatlantic Security

By Magnus Nordenman

The annual Munich Security Conference (MSC) which kicks off today may be a veritable who’s who in global security, but the conference is far more than just hobnobbing among the nearly five hundred senior security and defense officials in attendance. Frequently the MSC has been a bellwether for things to come in the global security […]

New Atlanticist

Feb 16, 2018

Is the Democratic Order Doomed?

By Ash Jain

The order is holding for now, but the trends are worrisome The state of the global order one year into Donald Trump’s presidency will be at the top of the agenda when global security experts meet in Munich from February 16-18. The  outlook was bleak even before the 2016 US election. The rules-based, democratic order, […]

New Atlanticist

Feb 15, 2018

Raising the Curtain on MSC: 5 Things to Watch

By Barry Pavel and Lauren Speranza

February 16 marks the start of the annual Munich Security Conference (MSC)—the “Davos of international security”—in Germany. A Rolodex of top defense and foreign affairs leaders from Europe, the United States, the Middle East, and elsewhere will convene to take on a wide array of pressing global security issues. While the issues on the 2018 […]

EnergySource

Feb 15, 2018

Intelligence community continues to see threat from climate change

By Ellen Scholl and David Livingston

The 2018 Worldwide Threat Assessment, released on February 13, includes climate change among the identified threats to global stability. While many have pointed to the gap between this assessment and the rhetoric of US President Donald J. Trump—and the noticeable absence of climate change from his administration’s 2017 National Security Strategy—the worldwide threat assessment underscores […]

Climate Change & Climate Action Security & Defense

New Atlanticist

Feb 15, 2018

Timeline: How Libya’s Revolution Came Undone

By Erin A. Neale

An unusual protest erupted in Libya’s eastern city of Benghazi on February 15, 2011. Enraged by the arrest of a human rights activist, protestors clashed with police and supporters of Libya’s longtime ruler, Moammar Gadhafi, who responded with brute force. Two days later, activists called for a “day of rage.” The protests spread like wildfire […]

Libya

New Atlanticist

Feb 15, 2018

Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Steps Down

By Bronwyn Bruton

On February 15, Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn resigned following months of sustained protests and pressure from the country’s aggrieved and marginalized ethnic groups. The country’s ruling party, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), now faces a crisis of leadership as it determines Ethiopia’s next prime minister. This author predicted the imminent ouster of […]

Ethiopia

New Atlanticist

Feb 14, 2018

The United States and Turkey: NATO Allies at an Impasse

By Rachel Ansley

The US military continues to support a Kurdish militia in Syria that Turkey considers a terrorist organization, and Ankara has had enough. Now, as the Turkish military threatens to advance on Manbij, a town in northeastern Syria held by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces that includes the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), Ankara is “going […]

Turkey United States and Canada

New Atlanticist

Feb 13, 2018

Russian Casualties and Moscow’s Intent

By Frederic C. Hof

Reporting out of Moscow suggests that some number of armed Russians—up to 200—were killed by the US-led, anti-ISIS coalition after crossing the Euphrates River deconfliction line in eastern Syria on February 7.  If the reports are true, this was by far the bloodiest incident for Russian personnel since Moscow’s military intervention in Syria at the […]

Syria
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