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.

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

Apr 17, 2015

Economics 101: A Lesson for Ukraine

By Larry Luxner

Ukraine Can Learn from Baltic States’ Experience with Reforms, says Lithuania’s Ex-Prime Minister As it struggles to fix its economy, Ukraine would do well to study the reforms successfully implemented by three fellow former Soviet republics in the Baltics, Andrius Kubilius, Lithuania’s former Prime Minister said April 16 at the Atlantic Council. “I was Prime […]

Russia Ukraine

New Atlanticist

Apr 16, 2015

Europe Limps Back From Recession

By Ashish Kumar Sen

Dip in oil prices, European Central Bank’s bond-buying program seen as boon The European economy is slowly recovering from a double-dip recession aided in part by falling oil prices and a $1.2 trillion bond-buying program by the European Central Bank (ECB), a senior European Commission official said April 16. “We are seeing the European economy […]

Europe & Eurasia European Union

New Atlanticist

Apr 15, 2015

Falling Oil Prices Hit ISIS Where it Hurts

By Ashish Kumar Sen

Terrorist group’s plans to expand to South Asia seen hamstrung by its depleted finances A sharp drop in world oil prices and the presence of other terrorist groups will make it hard for the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) to establish a foothold in South Asia, said Omar Hamid, head of Asia Pacific […]

Afghanistan India

New Atlanticist

Apr 15, 2015

Making the Case for a Syrian National Stabilization Force

By Larry Luxner

Analysts propose US-led effort to end the war in Syria Nothing less than a national stabilization force consisting of fifty thousand troops and costing billions of dollars will stop the continuing bloodshed in Syria, three security analysts said April 14 at the Atlantic Council. The panel coincided with the release of a report, Setting the […]

Syria

New Atlanticist

Apr 15, 2015

In a New Bipolar Energy Order, America Must Assert Itself in the Arctic

By Vicente López-Ibor Mayor

This month’s US chairmanship of the Arctic Council has come at a particularly geopolitically divisive time. Previous years have seen increasing competition between nations to exploit the Arctic’s vast untapped energy reserves. It is a competition the US government has been less active in due to environmental concerns. More important and less widely acknowledged is […]

Energy & Environment Energy Markets & Governance

New Atlanticist

Apr 14, 2015

US-Cuba Forecast: Sunny?

By Ashish Kumar Sen

Cuba’s removal from terrorism list opens the door to full diplomatic relations says Atlantic Council’s Schechter US President Barack Obama’s decision to take Cuba off the list of state sponsors of terrorism is a long-awaited move that “opens the door” to the re-establishment of relations with Cuba, said Peter Schechter, the Atlantic Council’s lead Latin […]

Cuba

New Atlanticist

Apr 14, 2015

What Happened to #BringBackOurGirls?

By Ashish Kumar Sen

One year since Nigerian schoolgirls’ abduction, larger humanitarian crisis created by Boko Haram needs attention, says Atlantic Council’s Pham A global campaign that focused attention on the plight of 276 Nigerian schoolgirls abducted by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram a year ago overlooked the region’s larger humanitarian crisis, said Atlantic Council analyst J. Peter […]

Nigeria

New Atlanticist

Apr 14, 2015

Is Authoritarianism Staging a Comeback?

By Mathew Burrows and Maria J. Stephan

New volume examines how authoritarian regimes have become smarter The late Samuel Huntington, a Harvard political scientist, famously talked about democratization as a series of wave motions forward and backward. Scholars label the burst of democratization in Latin America, Asia, and Eastern Europe in the 1980s and 1990s as the Third Wave. The political reform […]

New Atlanticist

Apr 10, 2015

Are We Back on the Road to Extraterritoriality?

By Richard L. Morningstar

The Implications of Congressional Action Regarding the Iran Deal There has been much debate over the past several weeks on Congress’ role in a final nuclear deal with Iran. Congress clearly has an important role to play leading up to and after an agreement is finalized. US negotiators can, for example, cite congressional pressure to […]

Iran

New Atlanticist

Apr 10, 2015

Iran’s Growing Cyber Capabilities in a Post-Stuxnet Era

By Ashish Kumar Sen

Cyber attack on Iran served as an ‘awakening’ for Tehran Iran has vastly ramped up its cyber capabilities transforming itself from a “Tier 3” country to one that poses a significant global threat in the years following a massive cyber attack on its nuclear facilities, panelists said at the Atlantic Council April 8. “Iran is […]

Iran

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