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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.

Brent Scowcroft Warns Against Syria Intervention

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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Brent Scowcroft Warns Against Syria Intervention

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

Brent Scowcroft Warns Against Syria Intervention

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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Content

New Atlanticist

Jun 15, 2012

Brent Scowcroft Warns Against Syria Intervention

By Barbara Slavin

Brent Scowcroft, a veteran Republican voice on US foreign policy, said the United States “isn’t smart enough” to solve the Syria crisis and “would pay a heavy price for [military] intervention,” in an interview with Al-Monitor Washington correspondent and Atlantic Council senior fellow Barbara Slavin.

Syria

New Atlanticist

Jun 14, 2012

The Future of NATO Lies in Central Europe?

By Jan Hamacek and Jakub Kulhanek

The popular belief holds that the future of NATO rests on the strength of the Euro-Atlantic bond, any weakening of which is interpreted as a potential death knell for the Alliance. The ongoing debate on the purported declining interest of the US in Europe in favor of the Asia-Pacific region clearly illustrates this strategic anxiety; […]

Europe & Eurasia
NATO

New Atlanticist

Jun 14, 2012

Relations with Pakistan: Forging a New Partnership

By Shuja Nawaz

Pakistan is at a precarious point in its faltering return to democratic order, after yet another extended period of military-dominated rule that has left its bureaucratic system and civilian institutions stunted. Its polity and society have undergone rapid change, with countervailing forces emerging to counter the military’s overwhelming power. Though political parties remain weak and […]

Pakistan

New Atlanticist

Jun 14, 2012

Anchoring the Alliance: NATO Still Matters

By R. Nicholas Burns Damon Wilson and Jeffrey Lightfoot

It was the shot heard around the Alliance. In a hard-hitting farewell speech delivered in Brussels just days before his retirement as US Secretary of Defense on July 1, 2011, Robert Gates offered a tough-love message to America’s NATO allies. He warned that future US policymakers, and the American public, would lose interest in the […]

Europe & Eurasia
NATO

New Atlanticist

Jun 13, 2012

Anchoring the Alliance: The United States Must Lead

By R. Nicholas Burns Damon Wilson and Jeffrey Lightfoot

Despite their importance, key European allies cannot sustain a vigorous and effective NATO without an involved and committed United States.

NATO
Security & Defense

New Atlanticist

Jun 13, 2012

Fostering Sources of Growth Across the Atlantic

By Josef Ackermann

In times such as these, amid severe economic crisis in many European countries and persistent troubles in the United States, it may seem misplaced to search for Atlantic sources of growth. In many nations, a succession of crises has had to be contained, from real estate to banking, from private debt to public debt, from […]

Economy & Business
European Union

New Atlanticist

Jun 13, 2012

US Exclusion of Iran on Syria Threatens Syria, Nuclear Talks

By Barbara Slavin

The Barack Obama administration’s apparent decision to cut Iran out of a multilateral group trying to resolve the Syria crisis may backfire, encouraging Tehran to sabotage any post-Assad government and also undermining nuclear talks with Iran. The US gave its most explicit rejection of Iranian participation Tuesday, June 12 when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton […]

Iran

New Atlanticist

Jun 12, 2012

Day of Russia or Day of the Kremlin?

By Julian Lindley-French

Today is the Day of Russia. It marks the moment in 1992 when the Declaration on Russian National Sovereignty was adopted by the Russian Parliament and Russia re-emerged from the wreckage of the Soviet Union. Back then there was much hope both in Russia and the rest of the free world that this enormous, great […]

Russia

New Atlanticist

Jun 12, 2012

Are the Financial Markets Really Europe’s Savior?

By Frederick Kempe

If the euro is saved, the much-maligned power of global financial markets will deserve much of the credit. The conventional wisdom among many on the intellectual left is that unbridled financial players threaten to destroy the European Union, one of history’s noblest, war-ending projects. The truth, however, is something else. To be sure, speculators lack […]

Economy & Business

New Atlanticist

Jun 11, 2012

Enduring Soft Power of the United States

By Derek Reveron

The rise of China and the US pivot to the Pacific has renewed the debate about American decline. One look at America’s university campuses will confirm that its soft power, at least, endures. 

China
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