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.

Where are the Kingston Trio when you need them?

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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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 26, 2012

Where are the Kingston Trio when you need them?

By Harlan Ullman

Where is the Kingston Trio when needed? For those who may not recall or weren’t born then, the group was a singing sensation of the late 1950s and early 1960s, so much so that the Trio achieved cult status. Their 1959 hit, “They’re Rioting in Africa (The Merry Minuet)” was eerily prescient of today in […]

North Africa

New Atlanticist

Jul 25, 2012

Romney’s Trans-Atlantic Policy Needs a Reboot

By Annette Heuser and Tyson Barker

Mitt Romney’s first foreign tour as the Republican Party’s likely presidential candidate includes visits to two European states. While designed to send a message to potential voters at home, particularly blue-collar Reagan Democrats in the Midwest, the trip will be about photo opportunities. Romney’s visit to London is meant to echo his own successful management […]

Elections Politics & Diplomacy

New Atlanticist

Jul 25, 2012

Euro-Realism 2: How Safe is My Money?

By Julian Lindley-French

Lucullus, in Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens (spot the irony) warns, “This is no time to lend money, especially upon bare friendship without security.” As a Dutch tax-payer that warning carries little irony as billions of our hard-earned tax Euros have already vanished down the black hole of a failing currency – either in direct transfers […]

Economy & Business European Union

New Atlanticist

Jul 24, 2012

Romania and Paraguay: A Transatlantic Parallel

By Faith Hanna

In the past month, two countries that began their transition towards democracy in 1989 experienced non-military coups of dubious legitimacy.

Eastern Europe

New Atlanticist

Jul 24, 2012

Limits of Military Power

By Derek Reveron

In its recent report titled “A Decade at War.” the Pentagon’s Directorate for Joint Force Development (J-7) observed that the operations in Iraq and Afghanistan “were often marked by numerous missteps and challenges as the US government and military applied a strategy and force suited for a different threat and environment.”

Afghanistan Iraq

New Atlanticist

Jul 23, 2012

NATO: Connected Forces, Connected Minds?

By Julian Lindley-French

NATO must contend with two competing and contending inner-realities: a schism in Alliance strategic culture and concept, driven by deepening divisions over the world view and the future of the Euro; and the austerity-driven need for shrinking armed forces to work ever more closely together in a world in which the balance of power is […]

Europe & Eurasia NATO

New Atlanticist

Jul 20, 2012

Before taking on Syria, U.S. should heed lesson of the past

By Kiron K. Skinner

On June 6, 1982, Israel, seeking to relieve pressure on its northern borders by dismantling the Palestine Liberation Organization’s base of operation, invaded Lebanon, a country beset by civil war and Syrian occupation. Soon thereafter, France, Italy and the United States formed a multinational force to help stabilize the country — as differing factions of […]

Syria

New Atlanticist

Jul 20, 2012

Euro-Realism: Why We Need a New European Security Strategy

By Julian Lindley-French

I am a Euro-realist, neither a Euro-sceptic, nor a Euro-fanatic. My motivation is to drive through the fathoms of political fantasy and folly pouring forth from the current crisis, much of its cascading down from on high as a generation of failed political leaders try to hide behind a rhetorical deluge.

European Union International Organizations

New Atlanticist

Jul 19, 2012

Five Lessons We Should Have Learned in Afghanistan

By Joshua Foust

As the war in Afghanistan reaches its 2014 transition, when the major combat mission ends and U.S. troops take on a more sedate training role, we should take the chance to look back on what lessons we’ve learned there. With the war shifting from outright combat to maintaining the Afghan government and security forces; can […]

Afghanistan

New Atlanticist

Jul 19, 2012

It’s the Competitiveness, Stupid

By Frederick Kempe

America deserves better. If only this year’s presidential candidates were as focused on global competitiveness as are America’s business leaders, the world’s most important economy and democracy would already have become the “Comeback Kid,” portrayed on this week’s Economist cover as a muscle-bound Uncle Sam.

Elections Politics & Diplomacy

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