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.

The US, Europe, and the Euro: Neglect or Euthanasia?

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

Nov 2, 2011

The US, Europe, and the Euro: Neglect or Euthanasia?

By Kenneth Weisbrode

President Herbert Hoover is generally remembered as the man who wrung his hands during the Great Depression. It’s often overlooked that he had advanced a sophisticated explanation for it in which the main culprit was Europe, namely European debt. Hoover’s diagnosis may not have been entirely accurate. But he was right about one thing: blaming […]

Economy & Business European Union

New Atlanticist

Nov 2, 2011

Needed: A New Nixon, Sans Watergate

By Harlan Ullman

With potential budget cuts looming that would, at best, decimate U.S. military spending, the Obama White House and the Pentagon are scrambling to invent a strategy to shape fiscal reality. Strategy, the Pentagon rightly observes, should drive spending, not the converse. But reality dictates that spending will dominate whatever strategy emerges. Given a government that […]

New Atlanticist

Nov 2, 2011

As US Exits Iraq, “Endgame” in Afghanistan Remains Elusive

By Barbara Slavin

Washington’s failure to gain Iraqi approval for a significant U.S. military presence in that country beyond December could make it harder for Afghanistan to agree to a similar deployment beyond 2014. Vali Nasr, a former senior adviser to the State Department on Afghanistan and Pakistan, said the Iraq experience could be a “model” for Afghanistan. […]

Afghanistan Iraq

Europe After The Vote

Nov 1, 2011

Greece’s Coin Flip

By James Joyner

Many of us predicted that investor euphoria over Thursday’s Eurozone deal would soon fade. But few thought it would explode this soon.

Economy & Business Greece

New Atlanticist

Nov 1, 2011

Protests of Summer 2012 Will Shape Decade to Come

By Paul Saffo

Occupy Wall Street is the latest – and most dramatic – instance of the unrest smoldering in the American zeitgeist since the 2008 financial crash. It is also something larger, a catalyst releasing social forces unseen since the 1960s. These forces will gain momentum over the next half year and converge in what is likely […]

New Atlanticist

Nov 1, 2011

Will G-20 Counter Power of Uncertainty?

By Alexander Mirtchev

In 2009, G-20 leaders met in Pittsburgh and emerged with a mandate ‘to be the premier forum for international economic cooperation,’ endowing the G-20 with a leading economic role on the global stage. It appeared at the time that the leaders of the G-20 had successfully defeated pessimism. However, the rising tide of global economic […]

Economy & Business

New Atlanticist

Nov 1, 2011

Istanbul: The Search for Consensus

By Maleeha Lodhi

An orderly ‘transition’ in 2014, when American and Nato combat forces pull out from Afghanistan, rests on progress towards a negotiated political settlement. But a serious peace process to advance Afghan national ‘reconciliation’ has yet to get off the ground. That is why a regional conference that will convene in Istanbul on November 2 will […]

Pakistan

New Atlanticist

Oct 31, 2011

Italian Given Worst Job in Europe

By Ben Carliner

The Onion famously announced the election of Barack Obama to the Presidency in 2008 with the headline: Black Man Given Nation’s Worst Job. The Onion noted that the position “comes with such intense scrutiny and so certain a guarantee of failure that only one other person even bothered applying for it.”

Economy & Business European Union

New Atlanticist

Oct 31, 2011

Israel: A True Ally in the Middle East

By Robert D. Blackwill and Walter B. Slocombe

American leaders have traditionally explained the foundations of the U.S.-Israel relationship by citing shared democratic values and the moral responsibility America bears to protect the small nation-state of the Jewish people. Although accurate and essential, this characterization is incomplete because it fails to capture a third, crucial aspect: the many ways in which Israel advances […]

Israel

New Atlanticist

Oct 31, 2011

NTM-A and the Afghan National Security Force: Two Year Review

By William B. Caldwell IV

For two years, NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan (NTM-A) has partnered with the Government of Afghanistan to develop the Afghan National Security Force (ANSF). NATO leadership had the vision in 2009 to establish NTM-A to assume lead for the development of the ANSF. When they did so in November 2009 they provided it with the right strategy, […]

Afghanistan

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