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.

Hezbollah, Iran Pay Price for Syria Role

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

Jul 30, 2013

Hezbollah, Iran Pay Price for Syria Role

By Barbara Slavin

Two years after President Barack Obama confidently predicted a swift demise for Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president seems relatively secure. Pro-regime forces have clawed back swaths of key territory as the opposition splinters into hundreds of rebel groups.

Iran Iraq

New Atlanticist

Jul 29, 2013

Zimbabwe’s Irrelevant Election

By Bronwyn Bruton

Elections scheduled for Wednesday in Zimbabwe are shaping up to be an absolute disaster. They were organized on short notice and without adequate budget, so promise to be plagued with irregularities. Some will be deliberate—the ruling party is expected to rig the vote and violently harass the political opposition—but enormous lines, unprinted ballots, and disorganized […]

Elections Politics & Diplomacy

New Atlanticist

Jul 28, 2013

Turkey-Syria-Kurdish Fronts Heat Up

By Ross Wilson

Reports that Turkish F-16s will fly reconnaissance flights along the Syrian frontier highlight rising alarm over border security and suggest a further internationalization of the civil war in Syria with implications for it, Turkey, and the region’s Kurds.

Intelligence Security & Defense

New Atlanticist

Jul 26, 2013

US Governance Backbone Needed Now

By Harlan Ullman

Resurrection is a popular metaphor often promiscuously applied to fallen or disgraced athletes, politicians, celebrities and, of course, religion. But few entities are more in need of resurrection than the governance of the United States.

Politics & Diplomacy

New Atlanticist

Jul 26, 2013

Can Gratitude Improve American Policy in Afghanistan?

By Jeff Lightfoot

General de Gaulle is attributed to have said “Countries have no friends, only interests.” He offered this contribution to international relations theory from his war-time exile in London, where he depended entirely on the hospitality of the British government for the survival of Free France.

Afghanistan Politics & Diplomacy

New Atlanticist

Jul 26, 2013

The NSA Isn’t the Only One Watching You

By Daveed Gartenstein-Ross

On Wednesday, lawmakers in the House narrowly defeated a measure proposed by Rep. Justin Amash that would have dramatically curtailed the National Security Agency’s ability to collect phone records. While concerns about the breadth of the NSA’s surveillance are far from behind us, privacy advocates will do themselves a grave disservice if the NSA remains the sole […]

Cybersecurity Intelligence

New Atlanticist

Jul 25, 2013

US, China Drift Toward Zero Sum

By Robert A. Manning

For all the soaring rhetoric of the Obama-Xi Summit about the US and China committing to forge a bold, new partnership and avoiding a 1914-like stumbling into conflict, one could be forgiven for thinking the bilateral relationship is lapsing into a “same old, same old” ritualistic diplomacy.

China Economy & Business

New Atlanticist

Jul 25, 2013

Bank Leverage Now in EU’s Hands

By Chris Brummer

The ball is in the EU’s court to show just how much international financial coordination will be a race to the top, or to the bottom. Over the last two weeks, US regulators have approved “Basel III” banking regulations that will require banks to increase the amount and quality of capital used to finance their […]

European Union International Organizations

New Atlanticist

Jul 25, 2013

Can Senators Handle the Truth on Syria?

By James Joyner

Senators John McCain and Carl Levin have demanded answers from General Martin Dempsey on Syria. Can they handle the truth?

Maritime Security Missile Defense

New Atlanticist

Jul 25, 2013

Freeing Japan

By Julian Lindley-French

Thomas Jefferson once wrote, “I like the dreams of the future, better than the history of the past.” To nowhere does this Jeffersonian aphorism apply more than contemporary Japan. With Sunday’s clear victory of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party in elections to the Upper House of the Diet, Japan’s parliament, Japan maybe about […]

Germany Indo-Pacific

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