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.

Bipartisan Insanity on the Iran Question

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

Sep 25, 2012

Bipartisan Insanity on the Iran Question

By James Joyner

In the midst of a boilerplate speech to the UN General Assembly on the virtues of democracy and freedom, President Obama tossed in some rhetoric on Iran that’s either empty or dangerous. Neither option is a good one.

Iran Nuclear Nonproliferation

New Atlanticist

Sep 24, 2012

Founding Father of a Federal Europe

By Ben Carliner

Formally, the European Central Bank has but a single mandate – price stability. But as the debt crisis facing the Eurozone has evolved into an existential challenge, the ECB has been pushed into taking on responsibilities far beyond its original raison d’etre.

Economy & Business Europe & Eurasia

New Atlanticist

Sep 21, 2012

Time to Get NATO More Active on the Syrian Situation

By Robert Bracknell

The Syrian regime is struggling to contain yet another manifestation of the Arab Spring with brutality and inhumanity unparalleled since the freedom phenomenon began in Tunisia last April. The international media has documented the slaughter of thousands of rebels and protected civilians, waging war indiscriminately and through inhumane and unlawful means against internal populations whose […]

NATO Security & Defense

New Atlanticist

Sep 21, 2012

Russian Military Reform: Not Quite There Yet

By Jakub Kulhanek

With the last year defense budget of $72 billion, Russia has overtaken Britain and France to become the world’s third-largest defense spender. The Russian armed forces are in the midst of wide ranging transformation whilst acquiring some state-of-the-art weapons, including French-built Mistral amphibious assault ships.

Nuclear Nonproliferation Russia

New Atlanticist

Sep 20, 2012

Missing in Action: A Plan to Win the War of Ideas

By Harlan Ullman

Last week’s violence in more than 20 Muslim countries with four Americans killed in Libya has been attributed to a highly offensive 13-minute video that went viral on YouTube igniting these protests.

Middle East National Security

New Atlanticist

Sep 20, 2012

Why Britain Does Not Share ‘Europe’ Vision

By Julian Lindley-French

A couple of days ago in Riga I sat down with some very serious, senior Germans to discuss Britain and the EU. They simply could not for the life of them understand why Britain does not get the German ‘vision’ for Europe.

European Union International Organizations

New Atlanticist

Sep 19, 2012

The Day We Lost Afghanistan

By James Joyner

That the war in Afghanistan has been unwinnable has been obvious to most outside analysts since well before the so-called surge of 2009. Now, the United States government has finally admitted the obvious in deeds if not words.

Afghanistan Security & Defense

New Atlanticist

Sep 19, 2012

Deep-Water Oil Rigs as Strategic Weapons

By Martin N. Murphy

This, at least, is how Wang Yilin, Chairman of the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), chooses to view them. He reportedly told an audience at CNOOC’s headquarters in Beijing in May that ‘large-scale deep-water rigs are our mobile national territory and a strategic weapon’.

China Energy & Environment

New Atlanticist

Sep 18, 2012

United States on a Path to Nowhere

By Arnaud de Borchgrave

The round-the-clock killing of U.S. military advisers by Afghan soldiers they are training coupled with some $200 million worth of jet fighters and attack helicopters destroyed in a heavily fortified allied base in Afghanistan by Taliban guerrillas disguised in U.S. military uniforms are the latest reminders that 11 years of fighting have strengthened rather than […]

Iran

New Atlanticist

Sep 18, 2012

US-Mideast Policy Is Isolating America, Not Iran

By Sarwar Kashmeri

Two thirds of the U.N.’s countries recently signed a communique expressing support for Iran’s nuclear energy program and rejecting, what they termed, the United States’ unilateral sanctions against the Islamic Republic. A flashing red light that signals the American policy aimed at isolating Iran in order to curb its nuclear ambitions appears instead to have […]

International Organizations Iran

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