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

Feb 5, 2013

France’s Strategy for Success in Mali

By Sarwar Kashmeri

France’s military intervention is aimed at creating a stable state in Mali that is in French and EU strategic interests. What is France’s strategy in Mali? LTG Jean-Paul Perruche, former director-general EU Military Staff, in conversation with Sarwar Kashmeri, senior fellow, Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security and adjunct professor, Norwich University. (8 minutes)

France
Sahel

New Atlanticist

Feb 4, 2013

Forget Asia: Time to Pivot to Europe

By Robert A. Manning

Don’t look now, but for all the buzz about the Obama administration’s “pivot” to Asia and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, momentum is building on both sides of the Atlantic for a U.S.-EU free trade agreement that could be at least as consequential in shaping the world order. In fact, considering the messy geopolitical landscape with few […]

European Union
International Organizations

New Atlanticist

Feb 4, 2013

Libya’s Spheres of Bad Influence

By Karim Mezran

The tragic events unfolding in North Africa have brought to the attention of the West a reality that has been long underestimated and neglected: the rapid collapse of law and order in the countries that went through the revolts of the so-called Arab spring. Western countries have relied on the hope that new governments across […]

Libya
NATO

New Atlanticist

Feb 4, 2013

Obama’s Afghan Test

By Frederick Kempe

For America’s friends and allies, who will welcome Vice President Joe Biden to the annual Munich Security Conference this weekend, President Obama’s second inaugural address was notable for its single-minded focus on U.S. domestic issues even as global challenges proliferate. It was the clearest sign yet that Obama intends to build his historic legacy at […]

Afghanistan

New Atlanticist

Feb 4, 2013

Mali: Mission (pas) accomplie

By J. Peter Pham

The triumphalism of French President François Hollande’s visit over the weekend to the fabled desert city of Timbuktu less than a week after French forces pushed out al-Qaeda-linked militants had more than a passing whiff of George W. Bush’s “mission accomplished” landing on the USS Abraham Lincoln ten years ago. Hopefully, both France and the […]

Democratic Transitions
France

New Atlanticist

Feb 1, 2013

Hagel Hearings: Garbage In, Garbage Out

By James Joyner

The Senate confirmation hearings over Chuck Hagel’s nomination to be the next secretary of defense were a classic case of garbage in, garbage out. Sadly, they were par for the course in the American national security debate.

New Atlanticist

Feb 1, 2013

Ankara Embassy Bombing: Not Another Benghazi

By Ross Wilson

Once again, hearts and prayers go out to a victim of a terrorist assault on a US diplomatic establishment. The February 1 suicide attack on the American embassy in Ankara claimed one wounded, a visiting Turkish journalist, and two dead–embassy security guard Mustafa Akarsu and the bomber himself.

Turkey

New Atlanticist

Feb 1, 2013

Turkey Needs NATO Just as Much as NATO Needs Turkey

By Sarwar Kashmeri

Dr. Soner Cagaptay from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy talks about the “New Turkey,” and its pivot to NATO with Sarwar Kashmeri, senior fellow, Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security and adjunct professor, Norwich University. (8 ½ minutes)

NATO
Security & Defense

New Atlanticist

Jan 31, 2013

Mali: Now What?

By Julian Lindley-French

Oscar Wilde once wrote “One of the many lessons that one learns in prison is that things are what they are and will be what they will be.” As I witness the French, British, and other Europeans rush to offer their very little militaries in support of an expanding Mali mission I am reminded of that […]

Sahel
United Kingdom

New Atlanticist

Jan 31, 2013

For a Better Nuclear Future, Move Beyond Global Zero

By Robert Manning

More than four years after President Barack Obama’s 2009 Prague speech declared the goal of eliminating nuclear weapons worldwide, the nuclear landscape has become more complex and precarious and shows little sign of movement toward abolition. The so-called global zero initiative has arguably been overtaken by countervailing nuclear realities. Yet the administration remains mired in […]

Nuclear Nonproliferation
Security & Defense

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