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.

Turkey Moves Toward Helping Syria’s Kurds—and Calming Its Own

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

Oct 22, 2014

Turkey Moves Toward Helping Syria’s Kurds—and Calming Its Own

By Sabine Freizer

Ankara’s Handling of Syrian War Has Revived Its Own Kurdish Conflict Turkey’s promise Monday to let Iraqi Kurdish guerrillas cross its border to defend the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani against the Islamist army of ISIS provides a rare sign of hope for saving Turkey’s moribund peace process with its own Kurds. Turkey’s refusal until […]

Syria Turkey

New Atlanticist

Oct 21, 2014

As US, Europe Confront Russia, Another Costly Dispute Is Set to Heat Up

By James Rupert

Russia Faces Deadline in Twelve Weeks to Pay Biggest-Ever Arbitration Penalty Just eighty-seven days before Russia is mandated to pay a $50 billion penalty to the former owners of the Yukos oil company, there is no public sign yet of a settlement in the dispute, raising the chances that courts in Europe and the US […]

Energy & Environment Energy Markets & Governance

New Atlanticist

Oct 20, 2014

To Bolster Baltic States Against Russia’s Challenge, Here Is an Easy Victory

By Henrik Breitenbauch

An Impressive Nordic Defense Initiative Should Invite the Three Baltic Nations to Join As Russia’s attacks on Ukraine revive concerns about the security of its northwestern neighbors as well, last month’s NATO summit conference took two noteworthy steps, among others, to address the Russian danger. For one, the allies authorized a new quick-response force to […]

NATO Northern Europe

New Atlanticist

Oct 17, 2014

Ukraine News Roundup | October 17

By Jim Rupert

Russia and Ukraine reach tentative gas deal in tough Milan talks via Reuters Ukraine’s Failure to Address Corruption is Radicalizing its People via Associated Press Here’s Why Maidan’s Reformers Are Quitting Their Government Posts via Kyiv Post Poroshenko Government Fires Senior Officials for Corruption as Voters Fume via Christian Science Monitor Ukraine Will Need $2 Billion-Plus to Rebuild Donbas, Finance Minister Says via Moscow Times […]

Ukraine

New Atlanticist

Oct 16, 2014

Only a Long-Term Approach Can Resolve Terrorist Threat in Yemen

By Danya Greenfield

Two suicide bombing attacks in Yemen last week took the lives of at least 67 people and wounded more than 75 people, widely assumed to be the handiwork of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). This horrendous loss of life underscores the need for United States and its allies to reevaluate how we combat extremist […]

Yemen

New Atlanticist

Oct 15, 2014

Four Years After the Arab Spring, Tunisia May Manage an Improved Democracy

By New Atlanticist

But Voters Doubt the Political Class, So a Technocratic Government Offers the Best Hope Four years after Tunisia overthrew its dictator and ignited the Arab Spring revolutions in Egypt, Libya and Yemen, its 11 million people are nearing the end of their country’s formal political transition. Tunisian voters will elect a parliament on October 26 […]

North Africa

New Atlanticist

Oct 15, 2014

The US Fight Against ISIS: An Exercise in Futility?

By James Rupert

Fred Hof: US Policy Needs a Ground Game, and Here Are Two Ways to Build It The US military has escalated air strikes against the Islamist militant ISIS fighters who have been closing in on the Syrian town of Kobani and the nearby Turkish border, in large part because the Syrian civil war is now […]

Iraq Syria

New Atlanticist

Oct 11, 2014

Malala Yousafzai, Kailash Satyarthi Win the Nobel Peace Prize for South Asia

By Shuja Nawaz

It is South Asia, in a sense, that has won the Nobel Peace Prize this year. The Norwegian Nobel Committee has rightly honored Pakistan’s Malala Yousafzai for her advocacy of education for young girls, and India’s Kailash Satyarthi for his crusade against child labor and enslavement.

India Pakistan

New Atlanticist

Oct 9, 2014

Nigeria’s Finance Minister: African Economy is ‘Nearly a Hot Prospect’

By New Atlanticist

Alongside its urgent focus on West Africa’s outbreak of the Ebola virus, the world should stop to notice a bigger, more basic African fact—the explosive growth of its economy and middle class—says one of the continent’s top economists. Two decades after Africa earned a reputation as the world’s economic basket case, accelerating growth has nearly […]

Africa Economy & Business

New Atlanticist

Oct 9, 2014

After 25 Years, Germans Present the Berlin Wall’s ‘Signature Segment’ to Atlantic Council and Washington

By New Atlanticist

In the quarter-century since the Berlin Wall fell, a group of Germans has created a particular memorial to that event: a three-ton segment of the wall signed by the government and other leaders who managed the peaceful ending of the Cold War. This week, they presented it as a gift to the American people, to […]

Germany

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