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.

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin: The Once and Future Czar

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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Markup

Our experts decipher and annotate major speeches and policy documents to break down big ideas and lay them out in plain language.

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 […]

New Atlanticist

Oct 7, 2011

Rebooting the IMF

By Hilda Ochoa-Brillembourg

When computers malfunction there is often a simple recourse: Rebooting. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been through an undeservedly rough patch. As the fiscal policeman to the developing world, it lost relevance, as policemen do, when the going was good: Emerging markets were booming, liquidity was abundant, trade was growing, and, by and large, […]

New Atlanticist

Oct 7, 2011

China Currency Manipulation: Protectionism Not The Answer

By Hugh De Santis

Not for nothing is election season in Washington called “silly season.” The latest example is the China currency bill pushed by co-sponsors Senators Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and supported by many Republicans.

New Atlanticist

Oct 6, 2011

Afghanistan War: Ten Years Later

By James Joyner

Ten years ago tomorrow, President Bush announced that “the United States military has begun strikes against al Qaeda terrorist training camps and military installations of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.” In his announcement, Bush told us that “These carefully targeted actions are designed to disrupt the use of Afghanistan as a terrorist base of operations, […]

Afghanistan

New Atlanticist

Oct 6, 2011

Crux of the Crisis

By Maleeha Lodhi

Diplomatic efforts have helped in the past week to defuse the latest crisis to rock Pakistan-US relations. Although the immediate tensions have dissipated these developments have reaffirmed the tenuous quality of the relationship. This was the third crisis in a rollercoaster year which started with the protracted row over the Raymond Davis affair and was […]

Afghanistan Pakistan

New Atlanticist

Oct 6, 2011

Whither or Wither Pakistan?

By Arnaud de Borchgrave

Before retiring last week, U.S. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen made 27 trips to Pakistan as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff that convinced him he had established a close personal relationship with his opposite number, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani — only to conclude in farewell interviews that he is still baffled by the world’s […]

Pakistan

New Atlanticist

Oct 6, 2011

Afghanistan Ten Years On

By Julian Lindley-French

The first Afghan war of the twenty-first century is coming to an end as the first Afghan civil war begins. Ten years ago today the first Western soldiers were about to set foot on Afghan soil. The Taliban were then routed and it seemed likely that Al Qaeda would soon be denied the space that […]

Afghanistan

New Atlanticist

Oct 5, 2011

Nord Stream Winners and Losers

By Morgan Aronson

The Nord Stream pipeline, a $10 billion venture that opened last month, will allow Russia to deliver 55 billion cubic meters of natural gas directly to Germany, bypassing the traditional transit countries in Eastern and Central Europe. This has the potential to destabilize political relationships in Europe by transforming Russia from a merely influential player […]

Energy & Environment Russia

New Atlanticist

Oct 5, 2011

License to Kill?

By Harlan Ullman

Last Friday, at the retirement ceremony of U.S. Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen, U.S. President Barack Obama began his valedictory remarks expanding on the news flash that U.S.-born Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki had been killed by a U.S. airstrike. In what would be a well-deserved tribute to the admiral, the president also reminded the […]

New Atlanticist

Oct 4, 2011

Russian Musical Chairs: A Country on the Stop

By Ross Wilson

President Dmitri Medvedev’s public dressing down and dismissal of his country’s deputy prime minister and finance minister, Alexei Kudrin, on September 26 has attracted widespread attention in Russia and abroad.

Russia

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