New Atlanticist

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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.

Chancellor Merkel’s Strategic Opportunity

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.

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Chancellor Merkel’s Strategic Opportunity

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

Chancellor Merkel’s Strategic Opportunity

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

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Content

New Atlanticist

Jul 10, 2013

Chancellor Merkel’s Strategic Opportunity

By Ulrich Speck

If a European leader these days can be called assertive, it’s Angela Merkel. The trouble is, assertiveness is not a foreign policy. Germany is still not thinking strategically—but that is what it needs to do. Receiving Barack Obama in Berlin on June 19, the German chancellor’s bold approach was on full display. She lectured the […]

Economy & Business European Union

New Atlanticist

Jul 9, 2013

The US Should Give Egypt’s Military 48 Hours to Restore Civilian Rule

By Sarwar Kashmeri

It is a truth universally acknowledged (my apologies to Jane Austen) that the removal of a country’s elected leader by its military is deemed a military coup. So while I agree with President Obama’s pragmatic refusal to so label the recent overthrow of Egypt’s President Morsi, this finesse of terminology had better be a temporary […]

North Africa United States and Canada

New Atlanticist

Jul 9, 2013

Scanning Cargo Containers Is More Important than Scanning Emails

By Joerg Wolf

The United States has built huge internet surveillance infrastructures, but failed to implement its own 9/11 law about maritime cargo security.

Cybersecurity Maritime Security

New Atlanticist

Jul 8, 2013

Egyptian Democracy 2.0?

By Julian Lindley-French

In a master-class of under-stated British diplomatic fudgery Foreign Secretary (and fellow Yorkshireman) William Hague said of the Egyptian Army’s ‘soft coup,’ “It’s happened, so we will have to recognize the situation will move on.”  Implicit in that statement is recognition that if Egypt is to create Egyptian democracy 2.0 one would not ideally start from […]

North Africa Politics & Diplomacy

New Atlanticist

Jul 8, 2013

Egypt: A Coup Is What it Is

By Rajan Menon

On Wednesday, Egypt’s military, long the country’s most powerful political institution and an outfit with a massive economic empire, deposed Mohamed Morsi, the only Egyptian president ever to attain office by winning an election in which all political parties could compete on an equal footing.

Elections North Africa

New Atlanticist

Jul 8, 2013

Islam Is Not the Solution to What Ails the Middle East

By Barbara Slavin

During the decades when Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood was a barely tolerated opposition party, it campaigned against the reigning secular autocrats under the banner, “Islam is the solution.” With the military’s removal on Jul. 3 of the Brotherhood president, Mohamed Morsi, the region’s oldest exemplar of political Islam has lost its best and perhaps only chance […]

North Africa

New Atlanticist

Jul 3, 2013

When Governments Become Destructive

By Harlan Ullman

July Fourth marks the United States’ Independence Day. The central celebrated document, the Declaration of Independence, that rejected British rule, was the masterpiece of democratic expression written by Thomas Jefferson in 1776. The most profound lines aren’t the more famous “When in the course of human events” or “all men are created equal” but rather […]

Politics & Diplomacy

New Atlanticist

Jul 3, 2013

The Future of US Cyber Command

By Jason Healey

For months it has been an entertaining parlor game in the nation’s capital: guessing what will happen next with U.S. Cyber Command, the military organization designed to defend the country’s networks and attack its adversaries. The topic will increasingly be in the spotlight as the head of that command, General Keith Alexander, is also the […]

Cybersecurity Security & Defense

New Atlanticist

Jul 2, 2013

US Rebalancing Asia, Not Containing China

By Robert A. Manning

A widely held belief among many in China is that every US policy move affecting the country is part of a concerted strategy of containment aimed at preventing its reemergence. Thus, the US “rebalancing” in Asia, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the US alliances with Japan, South Korea and Australia are all components of a US […]

China Economy & Business

New Atlanticist

Jul 2, 2013

Snowden: Why France is Angry

By Julian Lindley-French

It was as predictable, subtle and French as a first tasting of a Chassagne Montrachet Premier Cru – full of hidden complexity and fascinating ‘notes’. French President Hollande’s condemnation of Edward Snowden-alleged American spying in Europe was dramatically shrill. “We cannot accept”, the President thundered, “…this kind of behaviour between allies and partners”, before going […]

Economy & Business France
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