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.

Japan’s Coming Challenges: What Awaits Shinzo Abe

New Atlanticist
Mar 6, 2025

How European leaders are responding to Trump’s approach to Ukraine and Europe

From London and Berlin to Paris and Brussels, European leaders have taken several notable steps this week on security. This follows the blow-up between the Ukrainian and US presidents on February 28.

New Atlanticist
Feb 26, 2025

Why the US should not lift sanctions against Russia

By
Charles Lichfield

Sanctions are having an unmistakable effect, albeit below the inflated expectations of many in the West in early 2022. Lifting them now would be a mistake.

Conflict
Economic Sanctions

New Atlanticist
Mar 5, 2025

The Egyptian plan for postwar Gaza is a good starting point—but it needs changes

By
Thomas S. Warrick

While many obstacles remain, the Egyptian proposal could form the starting point for negotiations over a workable plan for postwar Gaza.

Conflict
Crisis Management

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Markup

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

New Atlanticist

Jan 2, 2013

Japan’s Coming Challenges: What Awaits Shinzo Abe

By Rajan Menon

Shinzo Abe became prime minister of Japan—its seventh in six years —after his Liberal Democratic Party, which has governed Japan for all but four years since 1955, won parliamentary elections resoundingly, ending a three-year interlude by the Democratic Party of Japan.

Economy & Business Japan

New Atlanticist

Jan 1, 2013

Cliff Politics

By Julian Lindley-French

First century Roman senator and historian Tacitus railing against the greed of imperial Rome said, “To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false titles, they call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace”.

New Atlanticist

Dec 27, 2012

Going Over the Decency Cliff

By Harlan Ullman

The looming fiscal cliff has received almost as much publicity as the Mayan prediction of the end of the world. This column has warned that the nation also faces a strategic cliff that could pose even greater jeopardy than from the fiscal woes. But there is a third and possibly more precipitous cliff.

United States and Canada

New Atlanticist

Dec 27, 2012

Much EU About Nothing?

By Julian Lindley-French

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has something of the night about him. With the Germans about to lead the seventeen Eurozone countries into the greatest political leap in the dark since the creation of the European Union, Schaeuble has suggested that the British people be denied a referendum on their future relationship with a future German-led EU.

European Union International Organizations

New Atlanticist

Dec 21, 2012

The World Won’t End Today; Neither Will Apocalyptic Hysteria

By Paul Saffo

The world will not end today, the date of the so-called “Mayan Apocalypse.”

New Atlanticist

Dec 21, 2012

The Decisive African Youth Vote

By Adrienne Chuck

The Arab Spring underscored the pivotal role that youth can play in a country’s economic and political stability. This is even truer in Sub-Saharan Africa, where 70 percent of the population is under the age of 30.

Economy & Business Elections

New Atlanticist

Dec 21, 2012

NATO’s Syria Red Line

By Joanna Buckley

What began in March 2011 as peaceful protests against the Syrian regime has developed into a bloody civil war with an estimated 40,000 people killed. The launch of Scud missiles this week has escalated the conflict and has been seen by some analysts as a sign that President Bashar al-Assad is becoming increasingly desperate and […]

NATO Security & Defense

New Atlanticist

Dec 21, 2012

Syria’s Time Is Running Out

By Frederic C. Hof

In March 2011, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad made a fateful and catastrophic choice. In Deraa, regime thugs had pulled the fingernails off of teenagers guilty of the high crime of spray-painting anti-regime graffiti. Instead of going there to console and compensate families, he ordered the same thugs to open fire on demonstrators.

Security & Defense Syria

New Atlanticist

Dec 21, 2012

Euro-Realism: For a Better Europe

By Julian Lindley-French

Myth has it that Trotsky believed capitalism would collapse under the weight of its own contradictions. In fact that was the so-called Ultra Leftists, as neither Lenin nor Trotsky thought capitalism would face a final reckoning, believing rather that capitalism would preserve itself at whatever cost. Only class struggle, they believed, would ensure the collapse […]

Economy & Business European Union

New Atlanticist

Dec 20, 2012

Chuck Hagel, Israel, and Honest Debate

By James Joyner

Atlantic Council chairman Chuck Hagel has been widely reported to be President Obama’s choice for secretary of defense. Given that he’s my boss’ boss, I’ve refrained from commentary on his merits for the job. But silence in the face of slander is too often taken as admission.

Middle East

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