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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.

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Advice on Doing Business with Pakistan

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.

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Advice on Doing Business with Pakistan

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

Advice on Doing Business with Pakistan

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, 2013

Advice on Doing Business with Pakistan

By Shuja Nawaz

Dear Mr. President, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is meeting with you on Wednesday with high expectations. He is a pragmatic business-oriented politician with a powerful electoral base who has shown magnanimity and deftness in allowing opposition parties to form governments in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh provinces, and he backed the election of a nationalist Baloch as the chief minister in Baluchistan. […]

Pakistan

New Atlanticist

Oct 21, 2013

Nawaz Sharif Comes to Washington

By Shuja Nawaz

When Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif lands in Washington this weekend, he would not be blamed if he is wracked by mixed feelings. His last visit to the US capital, in July 1999, occurred in the wake of the Kargil adventure with India that he allowed to get out of hand, and which led to a […]

Pakistan

New Atlanticist

Oct 21, 2013

Pentagon Meltdown

By Harlan Ullman

At various times in our history, alarms of a pending defense “train wreck” or “hollow force” reverberated throughout Washington. Today, the Pentagon is indeed vulnerable to a meltdown, in many ways far more severe than conventional wisdom holds. But, if we are clever, and that is a Herculean if, we can still field the forces […]

New Atlanticist

Oct 17, 2013

Euro-Realism: Now For the Long Term?

By Julian Lindley-French

In 1910 Brigadier-General Henry Wilson gave a lecture arguing that a European war was inevitable and Britain’s only option was to ally with France. One of the attending officers responded by suggesting that only “inconceivable stupidity on the part of statesmen” could trigger such a disaster. Wilson responded with derision, saying that “inconceivable stupidity is […]

Europe & Eurasia European Union

New Atlanticist

Oct 16, 2013

Iran Nuclear Talks in Geneva Get Down to Details

By Barbara Slavin

From the European venue to the power point presentation in English, this week’s nuclear negotiations with Iran showed a new seriousness that bodes well for a future agreement, even if it does not guarantee one. Iranian officials from US-educated Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on down spoke in English, dispensing with time-consuming translations, and outlined […]

Iran

New Atlanticist

Oct 16, 2013

What Next for Syria – Breakdown, Breakthrough, or Botched Opportunity?

By Harlan Ullman

The Obama administration is on the verge of botching an unprecedented opportunity. Prior to the remarkable joint US-Russian initiative that established a process to dispose of Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal, the outlook for the region was grim. The only certainty was continuing violence that will kill tens of thousands and displace many more hundreds of […]

Iran Russia

New Atlanticist

Oct 11, 2013

No Hollywood Ending to Piracy off Somalia

By J. Peter Pham

The Tom Hanks movie “Captain Phillips,” which opens Friday, will focus attention — again — on piracy off the coast of Somalia. The movie, in which (spoiler alert) the bad guys get caught, unfortunately might lead you to think that this is a problem that’s been solved. After all, since the April 2009 seizure of the cargo […]

East Africa

New Atlanticist

Oct 11, 2013

US-China: A New Model of Great Power Relations

By Stephen J. Hadley

This week Atlantic Council board director Stephen J. Hadley, principal at RiceHadleyGates and former national security adviser to President George W. Bush, delivered a lecture at the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy on the future of the US-China relationship. The full text of his remarks are below.

China United States and Canada

New Atlanticist

Oct 11, 2013

Iran Nuclear Talks Return to Geneva with Better Prospects

By Barbara Slavin

There’s an element of déjà vu about next week’s planned talks in Geneva on Iran’s nuclear program.   Four years ago, the United States and Iran reached a tentative agreement on a confidence building measure that would have sent out most of Iran’s stockpile of lightly enriched uranium in return for fuel for a reactor […]

Iran

New Atlanticist

Oct 11, 2013

The Bosnian Census and the Future of the Dayton Peace Agreement

By Sarah Bedenbaugh

For the first time since Bosnia and Herzegovina gained independence from Yugoslavia, the country is conducting a national census.  In most countries, census-taking is an automatic, rather tedious method of record-keeping carried out at varying intervals.  In Bosnia, however, the census has stirred up deep-rooted ethnic tensions once more, and brings up fundamental questions about […]

The Balkans
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