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

Mar 6, 2014

How to Save the Shale Revolution

By Robert A. Manning

Enlightened state regulators, a coalition of the willing, and continued improvements in technology together hold promise for elevating best practices around fracking to the status of new norms. “We’re in the first inning of a nine-inning game on the shale revolution in the United States,” Conoco CEO Ryan Lance recently boldly predicted. Given the dramatic impact […]

Energy & Environment
Oil and Gas

New Atlanticist

Mar 5, 2014

Moldova’s Prime Minister: We Still Must Build Domestic Consensus for Our European Future

By New Atlanticist

As Moldova prepares (along with Georgia) to sign trade and cooperation agreements with the European Union by September, both countries face military and economic pressure from Russia to reverse course and instead join the Russian-led Customs Union that Russian President Vladimir Putin seeks to establish among states of the former Soviet Union. In an interview […]

European Union
International Organizations

New Atlanticist

Mar 5, 2014

Judy Asks: Will Putin Finally Wake Up Europe?

By Judy Dempsey

Every week a selection of leading experts answer a new question from Judy Dempsey, nonresident senior associate at Carnegie Europe and editor-on-chief of Strategic Europe, on the foreign and security policy challenges shaping Europe’s role in the world. This week the roster of experts included the Council’s Ian Brzezinski and Damon Wilson.

Ukraine

New Atlanticist

Mar 3, 2014

US Must Pull Germany Into Helping Lead NATO Against Russia

By Erik Brattberg

If Russia pursues and consolidates its armed seizure of Ukrainian territory in Crimea, the US and NATO have no politically viable option for reversing that advance by military force. What the West can do, however, is too modify Moscow’s calculations, making it more costly for Putin to sustain his aggressive effort to hold Ukraine within […]

Germany
Russia

New Atlanticist

Mar 3, 2014

Four Steps NATO can Take to Support Ukraine

By Ian Brzezinski

NATO’s governing body, the North Atlantic Council, met Sunday to discuss Russia’s invasion of Crimea and its threat to take military action elsewhere in Ukraine. Immediately afterwards, the Alliance convened a session of the NATO-Ukraine Commission, which brought Kyiv to the table. The meetings yielded a strong statement from NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rassmussen who […]

NATO
Russia

New Atlanticist

Mar 3, 2014

How to Beat a Russian Cyber Assault on Ukraine

By Jason Healey

Ukraine and its friends in the United States, NATO, and European Union need to prepare now for a probably inevitable (but just possibly preventable) cyber conflict with Russian-backed proxies. Russian government behavior is clear when its perceived interests in its “near abroad” are at risk. The trend started most obviously in 1999 when the Kremlin turned […]

Cybersecurity
Russia

New Atlanticist

Mar 2, 2014

Nicholas Burns: Five Steps Obama Should Take Now Against Russia

By New Atlanticist

President Obama can quickly take five concrete steps to blunt Russia’s military seizure of control in the Ukrainian territory of Crimea, former Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said in an Atlantic Council conference call today with journalists and Council members. “President Obama faces the most difficult international crisis of his presidency,” Burns said, and the […]

NATO
Russia

New Atlanticist

Mar 2, 2014

Putin’s Strategy

By Damon Wilson

President Putin is striking back and playing for keeps in Ukraine. After losing his lever of control over Ukraine when the pliant and dependent former President Viktor Yanukovych fled to Russia, Putin is seeking to regain his leverage by dismembering Ukraine.

Russia
Ukraine

New Atlanticist

Mar 2, 2014

Putin’s Risk of Blowback From Ukraine

By Ian Brzezinski

US Should Stress to Russia the Costs it Will Pay at Home Russia’s invasion of Crimea, and the Russian parliament’s authorization for President Vladimir Putin’s to use military force throughout Ukraine, reflects Putin’s longstanding desire to reacquire territory lost through the collapse of the Soviet Union. This incursion violates a treaty Russia signed in 1994 […]

Eastern Europe
Russia

New Atlanticist

Mar 2, 2014

What Does Putin Want in Ukraine?

By Rajan Menon

The first thing to be said about the question I’ve posed in the title is that no one truly knows — and you shouldn’t believe anyone who says they do. Even Vladimir Putin is unlikely to have figured out all his moves, or decided what would constitute victory for him in Ukraine, at an acceptable […]

Russia
Ukraine

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