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’s Convergence with the West Benefits the World

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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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.

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

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 […]

New Atlanticist

Oct 1, 2013

Iran: Speak Softly BUT…Mr President

By Julian Lindley-French

On 26 January, 1900 US President Theodore Roosevelt sent a letter to Henry L. Sprague of the Union Club of New York in which he wrote, “Speak softly and carry a big stick and you will go far.” The US press seized on the phrase and a new foreign policy doctrine was born – ‘Big […]

Iran

New Atlanticist

Oct 1, 2013

Italy: Back on the Brink

By Jordan Smith

Italy’s troubled coalition, a product of last February’s inconclusive elections, is on the brink of another collapse following the decision of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to pull his party out of the ruling coalition government. Italy’s chronic instability could lead to further downgrading of the country’s credit rating, raising its borrowing costs, adding to […]

New Atlanticist

Sep 30, 2013

Defense Strategy and the Turing Test

By Julian Lindley-French

Speaking on the European Union’s Common Security and Defense Policy is the strategy equivalent of talking paint dry. Europeans need a test—similar to Alan Turing’s for determining whether artificial intelligence can successfully mimic human thought and action or not—for the many EU, NATO, and national defense strategies which plaster the walls of Europe’s rickety and […]

European Union International Organizations

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