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.

Syria’s Olympian Tragedy and the New Middle East

New Atlanticist
Jul 29, 2025

The Russia pressure menu: Options to convince Putin to negotiate on Ukraine

As the US president cuts his deadline for Russia to ten days, there are several options for him to increase pressure on Moscow to pursue peace.

New Atlanticist
Jul 24, 2025

Dispatch from Manila: A lesson in calling out Chinese maritime aggression

By
Markus Garlauskas, Philip W. Yu

As the Philippines has focused more on Chinese threats to itself, Manila also seems increasingly inclined to see its own security as connected to that of the broader region.

China
Indo-Pacific

New Atlanticist
Jul 1, 2025

The US must enforce sanctions to prevent Iran from rebuilding its nuclear program

By
Kimberly Donovan

To ensure that Tehran cannot get its hands on the financial resources it would need to rebuild its nuclear program, Iran sanctions enforcement should start with China.

Economic Sanctions
Iran

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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 31, 2012

Syria’s Olympian Tragedy and the New Middle East

By Julian Lindley-French

The struggle for Syria is forging a new Middle East. Summer Olympics are often used by desperate, repressive, time-expired regimes to act repressively. The Russians invaded Georgia in the midst of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Now, the Assad regime is attacking Syria’s largest city Aleppo. Some estimates suggest up to 200,000 people have already been […]

Syria

New Atlanticist

Jul 30, 2012

Cyber Offense is King

By Jorge Benitez and Jason Healey

Every single computer in the world can be hacked. From your personal computer at home to the office workstation of the CIA director, it is not possible to fully protect any computer from cyber penetration. For all the talk about cyber protection and the billions of dollars being spent ($3.2 billion in 2012 for the Pentagon […]

Cybersecurity Security & Defense

New Atlanticist

Jul 30, 2012

China’s New City: Is this Beijing’s Pivot?

By Robert Manning

It’s not relocating aircraft carriers to the Pacific or stationing 2500 marines in Australia but China’s provocative establishment of a new city, Sansha, in the disputed Paracels chain takes the geopolitical drama in the South China Sea to a new stage. This escalating assertiveness may have a larger strategic importance as part of Beijing’s response to […]

China

New Atlanticist

Jul 27, 2012

Olympic London

By Julian Lindley-French

Nineteenth century British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli once described London as the modern Babylon. Today, the Games of the XXX Olympiad begin in London. Over five weeks both the Olympic Games and the Paralympics will, to employ one of the many Olympic cliches now in the starting blocks, shine the light of the world on […]

Europe & Eurasia United Kingdom

New Atlanticist

Jul 27, 2012

Oversight or Not, Drones Are Here to Stay

By James Joyner

In “The Imperial Presidency: Drone Power and Congressional Oversight,” Michael Cohen argues persuasively that the U.S. Congress has abdicated its constitutional and statutory responsibility to reign in the executive branch in matters of national security policy. Then again, few who have been paying attention this past decade — some would say, the past several decades […]

Politics & Diplomacy

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

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