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
Mar 6, 2025

How European leaders are responding to Trump’s approach to Ukraine and Europe

From London and Berlin to Paris and Brussels, European leaders have taken several notable steps this week on security. This follows the blow-up between the Ukrainian and US presidents on February 28.

New Atlanticist
Feb 26, 2025

Why the US should not lift sanctions against Russia

By
Charles Lichfield

Sanctions are having an unmistakable effect, albeit below the inflated expectations of many in the West in early 2022. Lifting them now would be a mistake.

Conflict
Economic Sanctions

New Atlanticist
Mar 5, 2025

The Egyptian plan for postwar Gaza is a good starting point—but it needs changes

By
Thomas S. Warrick

While many obstacles remain, the Egyptian proposal could form the starting point for negotiations over a workable plan for postwar Gaza.

Conflict
Crisis Management

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New Atlanticist

Oct 8, 2013

A Necessary Transition in Pakistan

By Shuja Nawaz

In an historic moment this weekend, Pakistan’s two-term army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani announced that he would retire at the end of November after six years at the helm. An official later stated that Kayani would not seek any other job after retirement, putting an end to speculation in Pakistan that Kayani may stay on in […]

Pakistan

New Atlanticist

Oct 8, 2013

Cut-Rate Counterterrorism

By Bronwyn Bruton and Paul D. Williams

As the attack on Nairobi’s Westgate mall and the failed Oct. 4 raid by Navy SEALs in Somalia have reminded the world, the fight against terrorism in East Africa is far from over. It’s a fight that has been ongoing for two decades, but since 2001, the United States has outsourced much of the effort […]

New Atlanticist

Oct 7, 2013

Back to Somalia?

By J. Peter Pham

This past weekend, twenty years to the day after the conclusion of the Battle of Mogadishu, the deadly firefight dramatized in Black Hawk Down that left eighteen US military personnel dead and some six dozen others wounded (Pakistani and Malaysian units with the United Nations peacekeeping force also suffered casualties as they tried to relieve […]

East Africa

New Atlanticist

Oct 7, 2013

Turkey’s Convergence with the West Benefits the World

By Barçın Yinanç

If Turkey converges with Europe and the United States, rather than diverging, then the world looks totally different, according to the head of a US-based think tank. Turkey plays a stabilizing factor in a very unstable part of the world, Frederick Kempe, the president of the Atlantic Council, told the Hürriyet Daily News. “Turkey has become a […]

Turkey

New Atlanticist

Oct 4, 2013

National Security and the Shutdown

By Derek S. Reveron

When he was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen forewarned “the single, biggest threat to our national security is our debt.” While not exclusively related to the $16.7 trillion debt, the government shutdown offers an unfortunate opportunity to see the impact on national security when the government lacks an operating budget.

National Security Security & Defense

New Atlanticist

Oct 4, 2013

US: Anyone for Tea?

By Julian Lindley-French

All countries exist in a space between a mythical past and current reality. However, few permit past myth to destroy future hope. That is what twenty to thirty conservative Tea Party Republicans in Washington are effectively trying to do. In their minds, the Tea Party faction is standing up for the little guy in the […]

United States and Canada

New Atlanticist

Oct 2, 2013

Weighing Russia’s Syria Success

By Rajan Menon

Those who have bemoaned the acrimonious exchanges between the United States and Russia, watched with dismay as President Obama’s “reset” with Moscow (more of a marketing moniker than substantive policy) unraveled, and tried valiantly to insist that Russia remains a great power and ought to be respected and embraced by Washington as a partner have had their […]

Syria

New Atlanticist

Oct 2, 2013

Rummy’s Reclama – Fixing a Broken Process

By Harlan Ullman

Donald Rumsfeld is on tour touting his newest book: Rumsfeld’s Rules, a compilation of lessons accumulated over fifty years of public service. Rumsfeld has the distinction of being both America’s youngest and oldest secretary of defense, presiding over three wars—winding down Vietnam and during the past decade, overseeing the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. But […]

New Atlanticist

Oct 2, 2013

Time to Split the Cyber ‘Deep State’ of NSA and Cyber Command

By Jason Healey

Imagine if the commander of US Pacific Command were the leading source of information on the Chinese military threat, had the ear of Congress on China policy, ran covert military operations against China, and could decide what information on China was classified.

New Atlanticist

Oct 1, 2013

Al Shabab Mainly a Local Problem in Somalia

By Bronwyn Bruton

With Al Qaeda on the back foot in the Middle East, Africa is widely regarded as the next frontier in the war on terrorism and the next source of terrorism in the United States. But across Africa — in Addis Ababa, Kampala, Lagos and Nairobi — Christians and Muslims cheerfully rub shoulders. And Islamist militant […]

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