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.

Libya Exposes Transatlantic Contradictions

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

Aug 26, 2011

Libya Exposes Transatlantic Contradictions

By James Joyner

As the Libya crisis has unfolded these last several months, some long-festering contradictions have come to light. First, for a variety of reasons, many of us opposed American intervention in the conflict. As horrible as the potential humanitarian crisis in Benghazi could have been, preventing it did not strike us as a vital national interest […]

Libya

New Atlanticist

Aug 26, 2011

With the Storming of Libya’s Bastille, the Arab Revolutions Begin a New Phase

By Michele Dunne

As Libyan rebel forces surged into Muammar Gaddafi’s Bab al-Azizia compound on August 23, the reverberations of their celebratory gunfire were felt far beyond Tripoli.

Libya

New Atlanticist

Aug 26, 2011

Libya and Africa: The reset

By J. Peter Pham

With most of the Libyan capital now falling under the control of forces aligned with Libya’s Transitional National Council (TNC), greater time and attention can now be devoted to pondering the many questions which have been pushed to one side when the outcome of the conflict was still uncertain. These issues include legitimate concerns about […]

NATO North Africa

New Atlanticist

Aug 26, 2011

The Social-Foreign Policy Frontier

By Derek Reveron

Anne-Marie Slaughter, former director of policy planning staff at the Department of State is exploring the new “foreign policy frontier” at the Atlantic. In one post, she describes how this “frontier is deeply social, as messy and unsatisfactory as that may be.” The proposition is not as controversial as it seems.

New Atlanticist

Aug 26, 2011

U.S. Humanitarian Activism: Libya and Syria

By Don Snow

The remaining hot spots from the Arab Spring are in Libya and Syria. In both cases, popular uprisings erupted against tyrannical governments inspired at least partially by the Arab Spring events that began in Tunisia and moved quickly to Egypt and elsewhere. Distinguishing characteristics of these two cases, however, have been the continuing brutality of […]

Libya Syria

New Atlanticist

Aug 25, 2011

Libya’s Oil After Gaddafi

By Boyko Nitzov

Getting Libya’s oil flowing again is of crucial importance for the country’s recovery, stability, and prosperity. The proper management of the revenues derived from the petroleum sector is likely to define the government’s success or failure. Getting it right will be a technically difficult and politically sensitive task.

Libya

New Atlanticist

Aug 25, 2011

Libya Not Vindication for NATO But A Wake-up Call

By James Joyner

Scores of op-eds are springing forth declaring that the happy events taking place in Tripoli have vindicated the much-maligned NATO alliance and its performance in Libya. I’m an Atlanticist by conviction and profession, but the notion that helping take out Muammar Qaddafi after six months of heavy fighting proves much of anything is absurd. According […]

Libya

New Atlanticist

Aug 25, 2011

Why Libya Sceptics Were Proved Badly Wrong

By Anne-Marie Slaughter

Let us do a thought experiment. Imagine the UN did not vote to authorise the use of force in Libya in March. Nato did nothing; Colonel Muammer Gaddafi over-ran Benghazi; the US stood by; the Libyan opposition was reduced to sporadic uprisings, quickly crushed. The regimes in Yemen and Syria took note, and put down […]

Libya

New Atlanticist

Aug 24, 2011

Learning Lessons from the Splendid Little War in Libya

By Jeffrey Lightfoot

NATO’s intervention in Libya looks easy in retrospect, now that Muammar Gaddafi is on the run from victorious rebel forces. No US or NATO forces were shot down over the skies in Libya and no US boots were put on the ground. America’s European allies and partners carried a heavy share of the burden in […]

Libya

New Atlanticist

Aug 24, 2011

Libya, Egypt, and Syria: “The LES Countries”

By Harlan Ullman

The term “BRICs” is a virtual cliche. Brazil, Russia, India and China were lumped together as the globe’s “emerging” economic dynamos. Now, if even handedness applies to politics, we should declare the “LES” countries, drawn together by public rebellion against decades of autocratic rule. Libya, Egypt and Syria are the charter members. Whether what happens […]

Libya North Africa

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