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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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 24, 2013

Mexico: Education Reforms Under Siege

By Gabriel Sanchez Zinny

Lucia, a resident of Mexico City, was stuck in traffic for nearly seven hours. Pedro, from Guatemala, couldn’t make it home after protesters forced the airport to close, cancelling his flight. These stories will sound familiar to anyone who experienced the chaos in Mexico over the past weeks. The disorder stemmed from striking teachers unions, […]

Mexico

New Atlanticist

Oct 24, 2013

Gravity: Let’s Not Make the Movie a Reality

By Bharath Gopalaswamy

The recently released Hollywood hit Gravity depicts George Clooney and Sandra Bullock undertaking a space mission for routine maintenance activities. Their mission is disrupted by debris created by a Russian missile that destroys a defunct satellite. The astronauts scramble for safety, realizing that their vehicle is damaged beyond repair and the rest of their crew is dead. […]

New Atlanticist

Oct 23, 2013

Mourning for America

By Harlan Ullman

Three decades ago, President Ronald Reagan could proudly proclaim “it is morning in America.” The meaning was clear. With Reagan at the helm, America would reverse its decline and emerge from the “malaise” of the 1970’s to a new and better place. Today, mourning is the appropriate term. For reasons that were too pathetically obvious […]

United States and Canada

New Atlanticist

Oct 23, 2013

The Military and the Shutdown: Assessing the Damage

By James Joyner

With the government back in business, it’s worth reflecting on the toll the sixteen-day shutdown inflicted on the nation’s defense. While most of the media attention went to relative trivialities like service-academy sports and the closure of war memorials, we wasted enormous resources that could otherwise have gone toward the nation’s security.

New Atlanticist

Oct 22, 2013

Hispanics Must Embrace Entrepreneurship and Innovation to Improve Education

By Gabriel Sanchez Zinny

By now, we all know the numbers. When it comes to education, Hispanics in the US are in trouble. There is a clear and persistent achievement gap between the educational performance of white and Latino students — white graduation rates outpace that of Latinos by nearly 12 percent. Nearly 15 percent of all Latinos drop out before completing […]

New Atlanticist

Oct 22, 2013

Moving Out of Af-Pak

By Sherry Rehman

Tomorrow Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, will meet President Barack Obama in Washington, to signal Islamabad’s renewed interest in a broad-based relationship with the US. This will be the first opportunity for both leaders to size up each other’s resolve, identify new areas of cooperation, re-assess perennial issues, and calibrate upcoming challenges. Given that the bandwidth for […]

Pakistan

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

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