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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.

Pentagon Cutting Warfighters to Prepare for Unlikely China War

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.

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Pentagon Cutting Warfighters to Prepare for Unlikely China War

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

Pentagon Cutting Warfighters to Prepare for Unlikely China War

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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New Atlanticist

Jan 5, 2012

Pentagon Cutting Warfighters to Prepare for Unlikely China War

By James Joyner

Later today, President Obama and the Pentagon’s senior leaders will unveil a new national security strategy as a harbinger to potential large cuts to the defense budget over the coming decade. Early reports are not promising.

New Atlanticist

Jan 4, 2012

The Turkish Roundabout

By Ashraf Ghani

As the eurozone experiences the worst crisis in its history, at least one country — Turkey — is happily on the outside looking in.

Economy & Business European Union

New Atlanticist

Jan 4, 2012

Geostrategic Signals and Noise

By Harlan Ullman

Are we hearing the sounds of geostrategic and economic time bombs ticking around the world? Or are these sounds simply noise, static or imagined that since Sept. 11, 2001, and the 2008 financial meltdowns have been amplified into deafening proportions?

New Atlanticist

Jan 3, 2012

Winning the Iran Debate

By James Joyner

National War College professor Bernard Finel makes an excellent point about why the hawks have the upper hand in the “war with Iran” debate. While he’s specifically taking to task recent columns by Stephen Walt, the argument applies equally to those, like myself, who have been arguing the folly of military action against Iran’s nukes: [T]he […]

Iran

New Atlanticist

Jan 3, 2012

Welcome to the Twenty-First Century. It Starts Right Now!

By Julian Lindley-French

It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. My 2012 started here in my beautiful little Dutch village chatting with my nice Dutch neighbours amid the clatter of many thousands of burning Euros being shot into the sky or exploding in brief, bright and brilliant suns.

European Union International Organizations

New Atlanticist

Jan 3, 2012

The Islamist threat to Africa’s rise in 2012

By J. Peter Pham

The biggest story out of Africa last year did not occupy the headlines the way dramatic revolutions in the Maghreb, civil strife in West Africa, the independence of South Sudan, famine in the Horn of Africa, piracy off the Somali coast, fraud-ridden elections in the ironically-named Democratic Republic of the Congo, and various other developments […]

Extremism Sahel

New Atlanticist

Dec 23, 2011

Ukraine-EU Summit a Missed Opportunity

By Adrian Karatnycky

The recently concluded Ukraine-EU summit was neither a grand failure nor a resounding success.

European Union International Organizations

New Atlanticist

Dec 23, 2011

The Birth of Bangladesh and the War That Didn’t Happen

By Mahbub Sarwar

Over the weekend Bangladesh celebrated its 40th year of independence from Pakistan. The Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971 is an example of the often contradictory machinations that characterized the Cold War.

New Atlanticist

Dec 23, 2011

Iraq: Worst Fears Coming True

By James Joyner

For years, analysts have worried that Iraq’s tenuous hold on stability would collapse upon the withdrawal of US forces. We’re now watching it happen.

Iraq

New Atlanticist

Dec 22, 2011

A (Slightly) Merrier Christmas in Mogadishu

By Peter Pham

While billions of people around the world join in Christmas celebrations this weekend, there will be few outward signs of holiday cheer, religious or otherwise, in the onetime Somali capital of Mogadishu.  

Somalia
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