New Atlanticist

NATO ‘Best Deal’ the United States Has Ever Made

By Ashish Kumar Sen

Former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen warns against placing conditions on defense of allies In a thinly veiled swipe at Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, a former secretary general of NATO, said on September 29 that it is in the United States’ best interests to be the world’s “policeman,” and it […]

The Geopolitics of Peak Demand

By Robert J. Johnston

This article is part two of a two-part series. From 1973 to 2011, when policy makers in Washington thought about energy, they thought in terms of concerns about peak supply. These apprehensions were triggered by the oil shock in 1973 that roughly coincided with the peak in US domestic conventional oil production and rise in […]

South Sudan’s First Vice President Blames Roads, Criminals for Blocking UN Efforts

By Ashish Kumar Sen

South Sudan’s First Vice President Taban Deng Gai blames the absence of roads, the presence of criminals, and weak governance structures for the obstruction of UN peacekeeping and humanitarian efforts in his country. Deng spoke in response to a confidential report from United Nations (UN) Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to the UN Security Council that […]

Waiting for Death in Aleppo

By Ashish Kumar Sen

Any hope of reviving a US- and Russian-backed ceasefire agreement in Syria may have been dashed by the air and ground offensives unleashed by the Syrian regime on the rebel-held parts of the western city of Aleppo. Backed by Russia, the Syrian military has launched a “ferocious” attack on Aleppo using bunker-busting bombs and outlawed […]

Vilify and Amplify: How the Kremlin’s Disinformation Machine is Attacking the MH17 Probe

By Ben Nimmo

The Kremlin has turned its disinformation machine on those who are investigating the shoot-down of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 over Ukraine in July of 2014, using state employees, state-run media, and the state-run, though unacknowledged, “troll factory” of fake Internet accounts. The primary goal of the media attacks has been to undermine the credibility of […]

Taking Stock of Iran’s Missile Program

Iran’s missile program should “rank among the highest priorities of US national security concerns,” said Zalmay Khalilzad, a former US ambassador who serves on the Atlantic Council’s board of directors. In a parade on September 21, Iran’s “military displayed long-range missiles, tanks, and the Russian-supplied S-300 surface-to-air defense system,” according to a Reuters report. “It’s […]

The Presidential Debates: Here’s What We Would Like to Know

By Ashish Kumar Sen

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and her Republican challenger, Donald Trump, took part in their first presidential debate in New York on September 26. The debate was the first of three. Here are some questions the Atlantic Council’s experts would like to pose to the candidates.

Arctic Science Moves to Center Stage

By Lester L. Lyles, Sherri Goodman, and Robert E. Hunter

Nothing that happens in the Arctic stays in the Arctic. As a consequence of global warming, this is not a play on words but a truism. Climate change can no longer be denied; it must be addressed. Global warming is opening up an entire region, once silent and perpetually frozen, to commerce, transport, mining, and […]

Wanted: Leadership

Strategic planning will play a crucial role in the next US president’s ability to mitigate an amalgamation of political, social, security, and economic threats at home and abroad, according to Mathew Burrows, director of the Strategic Foresight Initiative at the Atlantic Council. “We need leadership on a lot of different levels to get us out […]

Preparing for the Next Big War

In the face of challenges from a revanchist Russia, Beijing’s territorial claims in the South China Sea, and the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), David Barno, a former senior American commander of US and coalition forces in Afghanistan, wants US Army leadership to reconsider how best to adapt to rising and modern security […]