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.

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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New Atlanticist

Jan 25, 2012

Dancing With the Taliban

By Sarwar Kashmeri

As the United States begins its peace-dance with the Taliban it is worth remembering that on the dance floor the Taliban always believe in leading.

Afghanistan NATO

New Atlanticist

Jan 24, 2012

Precursor to Pakistani Coup?

By Arnaud de Borchgrave

The prime minister stood before the Supreme Court and explained that “while he accepted the majesty of the law and the majesty of the supreme court,” he couldn’t arrest the president of the country on charges of bribery as he enjoys “immunity under the constitution.” Pakistani Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani had answered the […]

Pakistan

New Atlanticist

Jan 24, 2012

Civil Disobedience in Cyberspace: A Tale of Two Online Protests

By Jason Healey

Cyberspace brings us ever-changing technologies and resulting social norms, some of which are often in tension with more traditional conventions. Nowhere is this tension more apparent than between intellectual property rights and free sharing of information online. Two recent online protests – one criminal and largely a failure, the other legal and successful – illustrate the […]

Cybersecurity Security & Defense

New Atlanticist

Jan 23, 2012

What to do about Iran

By R. Nicholas Burns

What to do about an increasingly truculent and threatening Iran is now the most important foreign policy challenge of 2012.

Iran

New Atlanticist

Jan 23, 2012

Capitalism Sowing Seeds of its Own Destruction

By Arnaud de Borchgrave

“Capitalism in Crisis,” the front-page banner headline shouted. “The code that forms a bar to harmony” was the inside-page headline, suggesting a secret code that concealed a sinister plot to keep the rich richer and the poor poorer. “The enrichment of bankers, corporate chiefs, flash traders and their cronies is testing tolerance of inequality,” said […]

Economy & Business

New Atlanticist

Jan 20, 2012

Empathy with the Ayatollah

By Jeffrey Lightfoot

“Empathize with your enemy.” It is the first of eleven lessons offered by the former US Secretary of Defense Robert MacNamara in the award-winning 2002 documentary “Fog of War.”

European Union International Organizations

New Atlanticist

Jan 19, 2012

The Republican Party’s Multiple Circular Firing Squads

By Harlan Ullman

On the current trajectory (and assuming that no untoward events change the calculus before November), Barack Obama seems well on his way to winning a second term in the White House. Of the reasons for this prediction, three stand out: Republicans, Republicans and still more Republicans. With uncanny precision, the Republican Party and its membership, […]

New Atlanticist

Jan 19, 2012

Expect the Best Behavior from Our Troops

By Kurt Sanger

The video showing Marines urinating on dead enemy bodies in Afghanistan has refocused America’s attention on the behavior of service members. We have been painfully aware of the strategic implications of this kind of action since we saw the photos from Abu Ghraib. How could something like this happen now? Something is broken. We remember […]

Afghanistan

New Atlanticist

Jan 19, 2012

On Iran, Emulate TR

By R. James Woolsey and Robert MacFarlane

In the first week of 2012, President Obama finally approved tough sanctions on Iran’s central bank, aiming to cripple Iran’s oil trade and thwart its advanced efforts to possess a nuclear weapon. Iran’s armed-forces commander, Gen. Ataollah Salehi, threatened military action against the USS John C. Stennis, an aircraft carrier operating in international waters: “We […]

Iran

New Atlanticist

Jan 18, 2012

Worries Mount over Blowback of Israeli Attack on Iran

By Barbara Slavin

A former senior adviser on the Middle East to the last four US presidents says that “the negatives far outweigh the positives” of war with Iran and the United States should augment Israel’s nuclear weapons delivery systems to dissuade it from attacking the Islamic Republic. Bruce Riedel, who served on the White House National Security […]

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