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
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.

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

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

Oct 13, 2011

The Eurozone’s Original Sin

By Ben Carliner

When the seventeen countries that make up the Eurozone joined the monetary union, they each gave up a very important privilege: the ability to borrow in their own currency. For most members, this seemed at first less a concession than a windfall. Rather than paying a premium over the German benchmark, Eurozone members saw their […]

Economy & Business European Union

New Atlanticist

Oct 13, 2011

Political Acts of Insanity

By Harlan Ullman

One symptom of insanity is repeating the same action and expecting a different outcome. Cynics often accuse the United States of falling into that trap in conducting its foreign policy.

United States and Canada

New Atlanticist

Oct 12, 2011

Alleged Iranian Assassination Plot Suspicious

By Barbara Slavin

US Justice Department charges that elements of Iran’s government were behind a foiled plot on the life of Saudi Arabia’s U.S. ambassador have boggled the minds of many Americans knowledgeable about both Iran and terrorism.

Iran

New Atlanticist

Oct 12, 2011

Khudahafiz Afghanistan

By Sarwar Kashmeri

“Khudahafiz” is the South Asian Muslim way of saying “goodbye.” A wonderful phrase that means “Goodbye and may God protect you,” it is time for America to say, “Khudahafiz Afghanistan,” and end our miserable decade-long war in that country.

Afghanistan NATO

New Atlanticist

Oct 12, 2011

Germans Love Europe, but Not the Euro

By Wolfgang Ischinger

Commentators on both sides of the Atlantic have spent the last year trying to explain Germany’s halting, confounding approach to the euro crisis. Digging deep into the country’s history, a recent article in The Economist emerged with a telling question from the theologian Martin Luther: Why should sinners be given an easy way out?

Economy & Business European Union

New Atlanticist

Oct 11, 2011

The Decline and Fall of America’s Decline and Fall

By Joseph Nye

The United States is going through difficult times. Its post-2008 recovery has slowed, and some observers fear that Europe’s financial problems could tip the American and world economy into a second recession. American politics, moreover, remains gridlocked over budgetary issues, and compromise will be even more difficult on the eve of the 2012 election, when […]

China United States and Canada

New Atlanticist

Oct 11, 2011

The Strategic Influence Game 1: High Noon in the High North

By Julian Lindley-French

Who said geopolitics is dead? Ninety-four years on from the October 1917 revolution if anyone had any lingering illusions that Russia is a democracy they were surely dispelled by the 24 September announcement that President Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin would simply swap jobs in 2012. Moscow likes to call Russia a ‘managed democracy’. In […]

New Atlanticist

Oct 11, 2011

Afghanistan and the Future of US Foreign Policy

By Derek Reveron

Ten years after the 9/11 attacks and the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, one thing is clear-the United States now seeks to export security around the world.

New Atlanticist

Oct 7, 2011

Pressure Builds on Iran at Nuclear Watchdog Agency

By Barbara Slavin

As Iran continues a slow march toward potential nuclear weapons capability, diplomatic action to contain the programme is likely to shift to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), whose director general, Yukiya Amano, has taken a harder line than his predecessor about alleged military research by Iran’s nuclear scientists. Experts on the Iranian nuclear programme […]

New Atlanticist

Oct 7, 2011

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin: The Once and Future Czar

By David Smith

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on September 24 surprised political observers with what many believed was an early announcement that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will be the regime’s candidate for president in the March 4, 2012 elections. "I think it would be correct,” Medvedev told a United Russia Party Congress, “for the congress to support the candidacy […]

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