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

Jun 7, 2013

Turkey’s Unique Democracy

By Matthew Bryza

As a resident of Istanbul, it is clear to me that Turkey’s unique form of democracy has reached a defining moment. A quiet protest by a handful of environmentalists has exploded into a nationwide outcry by the half of Turkey’s electorate that did not vote for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Politics & Diplomacy Turkey

New Atlanticist

Jun 7, 2013

US Is Syria’s Only Hope

By R. Nicholas Burns

Syria’s savage civil war may have just entered a new and darker phase. During the past few weeks, momentum has shifted sharply away from the rebels in favor of the Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. The real possibility that his government, long presumed to be on life support, may now survive is bad news for rebel […]

Security & Defense Syria

New Atlanticist

Jun 7, 2013

United States Trapped in Cul-de-Sac of No Good Choices

By Harlan Ullman

Unlike the past when the United States faced potentially existential dangers, from the Revolution to the Civil War, Great Depression, World War II and the Cold War, since the attacks on New York’s Twin Towers on Sept. 11, 2001, too many of today’s crises and challenges have no obvious solutions let alone good ones. The […]

Middle East United States and Canada

New Atlanticist

Jun 6, 2013

Why NATO Won’t Intervene in Syria

By James Joyner

NATO secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen reiterated Friday that the Alliance will not intervene militarily in Syria. While he repeatedly made the same assurances regarding Libya before NATO’s ultimate action, there’s good reason to believe him this time. First, as Rasmussen noted, “There is a clear difference between Libya and Syria. We took responsibility for the […]

National Security NATO

New Atlanticist

Jun 6, 2013

The Ghosts of Task Force Smith

By Pete Dillon

Here we are again. Since World War I the United Sates has consistently entered into a post conflict reduction of military capacity that attempts to rebalance the national ledgers and reign in spending. The contemporary conversation inside the Beltway is saturated with opinions on the best way to proceed this time, even though our nation is […]

National Security Politics & Diplomacy

New Atlanticist

Jun 6, 2013

EU Foreign Policy Needs a Reset

By Ulrich Speck

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton is a skilled negotiator; the recent Serbia-Kosovo breakthrough will probably secure her a place in the history books. It is rather unlikely, though, that 2009 – the year EU leaders chose Ashton as High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy – will be remembered by […]

China European Union

New Atlanticist

Jun 6, 2013

Connecting the Baltic States to Europe’s Gas Market

By Matthew Bryza and Emmet Tuohy

More than two decades after the end of the Soviet occupation, and eight years after they joined NATO and the European Union, the Baltic republics remain disintegrated from the rest of Europe in one crucial way: their natural gas infrastructure isolates them into “energy islands.” But, for the first time in their histories, Estonia, Latvia, […]

Energy & Environment European Union

New Atlanticist

Jun 5, 2013

Southern Gas Corridor: Godot Finally Comes?

By David Koranyi

If all goes well, by the end of this month the multinational Shah Deniz Consortium will select the European leg of a grand pipeline project known as the Southern Gas Corridor to ship Caspian gas to Europe.

Energy & Environment

New Atlanticist

Jun 5, 2013

Lebanon inches toward disaster

By Rajan Menon

It has been Lebanon’s unenviable fate to be the playground for the deadly games of its more powerful and rivalrous neighbors. What has made Lebanon particularly vulnerable to the fears and ambitions of adjacent states—or in the case of Iran, those aligned with them—is the effect outsiders’ machinations have had on the delicate balance among […]

Middle East Security & Defense

New Atlanticist

Jun 4, 2013

Chuck Hagel’s Shangri La La?

By Julian Lindley-French

In James Hilton’s fictional 1937 novel Lost Horizons, Shangri-La is a heaven on earth, a happy island of peace, permanently isolated from the outside world (no, not Britain). For the High Lama (a sort of David Cameron) harmony, “is the entire meaning and purpose of Shangri-La. It came to me as a vision long, long ago. I saw all […]

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