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.

Slocombe: Send US Military Aid to Ukraine, But Expect Battlefield Results to Take Time

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

Stay updated

Explore our unique analysis

Fast Thinking

When major global news breaks, the Atlantic Council’s experts have you covered—delivering their sharpest rapid insight and forward-looking analysis direct to your inbox.

Experts React

Dive deep into developing stories, guided by continually updated expert analysis that leaves you better informed about the most pressing global issues behind the headlines.

Markup

Our experts decipher and annotate major speeches and policy documents to break down big ideas and lay them out in plain language.

Content

New Atlanticist

Apr 17, 2014

Slocombe: Send US Military Aid to Ukraine, But Expect Battlefield Results to Take Time

By Irena Chalupa and James Rupert

The United States should provide military aid to Ukraine but should understand that the strength it lends the government in Kyiv will be more political than military, at least in the short run, says Former Undersecretary of Defense Walter Slocombe. As the Obama administration has limited its assistance to “non-lethal” supplies such as rations and […]

Eastern Europe Russia

New Atlanticist

Apr 16, 2014

As China Builds Ability to Attack Satellites, Here is How US Should Respond

By Bharath Gopalaswamy and Dylan Rebstock

As searchers in the Indian Ocean inch toward finding the disappeared Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, a reminder of the rising role of China in space is that the critical first step in learning the plane’s fate was an innovative analysis of routine satellite data – and that Chinese space assets played an unusually prominent role […]

China Indo-Pacific

New Atlanticist

Apr 15, 2014

The Unthinkable Happens in Europe: Russia Invades Ukraine

By Taras Kuzio

Russia has invaded Ukraine. This is the only conclusion to be reached from evidence that has built up in the past few days. Groups of armed men wearing soldiers’ uniforms and working in military formations have fanned out throughout Donetsk province (oblast), and to some extent the adjoining Luhansk province, taking over police stations, Ukrainian […]

Russia Ukraine

New Atlanticist

Apr 14, 2014

NATO and the New Conventional Deterrence

By Henrik Breitenbauch

Russia’s assaults on Ukraine this spring are about to revive an old idea within NATO that has not been in vogue since the Cold War: conventional deterrence . Russia’s ready use of military force in Ukraine, Georgia and beyond puts its non-NATO neighbors very much at risk of military intervention. President Putin’s fracturing of the region’s […]

NATO Russia

New Atlanticist

Apr 14, 2014

In the War for Ukraine, Russian Gunmen Seem Organized, But No-One Else

By Irena Chalupa

Amid the fighting that has spread across towns in southeastern Ukraine, local Russian- and Ukrainian-language websites and news organizations depict a battle in which squads of Russian gunmen are moving and fighting in tight, militarized formations to seize more government buildings and police headquarters. They are fearsomely aggressive, heavily armed, and well organized. The government […]

Russia Ukraine

New Atlanticist

Apr 14, 2014

US Ex-Ambassador to Ukraine Urges US Military, Intelligence Help for Kyiv

By James Rupert

A former US ambassador to Ukraine, John Herbst, is urging the Obama administration to begin providing direct military help to the government in Kyiv, saying new violence by Russian-backed gunmen in eastern Ukraine appears to reflect a Russian government escalation of the crisis. “The United States should provide Ukraine with anti-air and anti-tank equipment, along […]

Eastern Europe NATO

New Atlanticist

Apr 14, 2014

How Washington’s Polarization Endangers Nuclear Arms Control

By Jofi Joseph

The Global Treaty Banning Nuclear Test Explosions is Increasingly at Risk Five years ago this month, President Obama won international applause for his landmark speech in Prague calling for a world free of nuclear weapons – a commitment intended as a central organizing principle of his national security framework. But progress on that “Prague Agenda” […]

Nuclear Nonproliferation Security & Defense

New Atlanticist

Apr 14, 2014

Europe Awaits the Great Gas Cutoff

By New Atlanticist

Escalating Ukraine Crisis Is Unlikely to Let Russian Gas Flow Smoothly to Europe “European countries from Germany and Poland to Italy and Turkey now need to ensure they have emergency plans in place to deal with a possible cut-off of Russian gas supplies,” Atlantic Council Senior Fellow John Roberts writes in an essay. As new violence […]

Central Europe Eastern Europe

New Atlanticist

Apr 10, 2014

Playing to Putin’s End Game

By R. Nicholas Burns

It is best to watch what Putin does, not listen to what he says This week’s ethnic Russian demonstrations in Eastern Ukraine, fistfights in the Ukrainian parliament, and the image of a country unraveling are all too predictable. They are right out of Putin’s Crimea playbook from a month ago. And just as in Crimea, […]

Russia Ukraine

New Atlanticist

Apr 10, 2014

Military Analysis: How Much of Ukraine is Putin Thinking to Invade?

By Irena Chalupa

Less than a month after Russia’s annexation of Crimea, a further Russian incursion into eastern Ukraine remains a distinct possibility. President Vladimir Putin may be emboldened by the weakness of the central government in Kyiv and a failure so far of Western sanctions to enforce painful to consequences on Russia. Putin has had an invasion […]

Russia Ukraine

Share

Issue briefs and reports