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

Oct 17, 2011

Assessing the Hunt for the LRA

By Peter Pham

On Friday, President Barack Obama announced the deployment of about 100 US military personnel to central Africa to assist the armed forces of regional states in putting an end to the decades long rampage of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).

New Atlanticist

Oct 14, 2011

BP Pipeline – Late but Good

By Borut Grgic

For years the giant Nabucco project has dominated the debate about building a crucial gas pipeline from the Caspian region to Europe – but a far more modest plan from BP may have all the right ideas.

Energy & Environment Energy Markets & Governance

New Atlanticist

Oct 14, 2011

Georgia’s Path to the West

By James Joyner

At a time when “Russia has been going backwards, not forwards in democratic reforms,” it is vital that the United States and Europe work together to bolster emerging democracies like Georgia.

NATO Security & Defense

New Atlanticist

Oct 14, 2011

The Strategic Influence Game 2: China in Space

By Julian Lindley-French

On 29 September at 1316 hours GMT a Long March 2F missile, China’s latest lifter, powered into the sky carrying Tiangong-1, Beijing’s first space laboratory. Shortly, China will launch Shenzhou 8 which is designed to link up with the orbiting laboratory some 350 kilometres above the Earth. Soon the Long March 5 will be in […]

China

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

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