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

Aug 31, 2011

The Worst Journey in the World

By Julian Lindley-French

Seventy years ago this day the first Arctic Convoy set off from Scotland en route to Murmansk in Northern Russia. Between August 1941 and May 1945, 78 convoys comprising some 1400 merchant ships completed what Winston Churchill called, “the worst journey in the world” to deliver vital war supplies to Soviet Russia under a lend-lease […]

United Kingdom

New Atlanticist

Aug 31, 2011

Lead Britannia!

By Harlan Ullman

August, not April, is the cruelest month. In the 20th century, two world wars were started. America’s long and tragic engagement in Vietnam and Saddam Hussein’s ill-fated incursion into Kuwait were conceived in August. If this August’s events — from Afghanistan and the Middle East to economic roller coasters, riots in Britain and hurricanes in […]

United Kingdom

New Atlanticist

Aug 30, 2011

Running on Empty – Why Europe and the US Continue to Disappoint the Markets

By Garrett Workman

Over the course of the past few months, we at the Council have been understandably, and I think rightly, heavily focused on the enormous economic implications of Europe’s sovereign debt crisis. As country after country comes under the watchful and discerning eyes of the markets, Europe’s leaders seem increasingly perplexed and incapable of undertaking the […]

Economy & Business European Union

New Atlanticist

Aug 30, 2011

Rules for Successful Engagement with Iran

By Hossein Mousavian

In his first year in office, President Barack Obama made unprecedented diplomatic gestures towards Iran, raising hopes that the animosities that have plagued US-Iran relations for the past three decades might be overcome and rapprochement achieved. In a special message on March 21, 2009, commemorating the Persian New Year, Obama promised a new approach that […]

Iran

New Atlanticist

Aug 30, 2011

Leadership Lessons of an Afghan Colonel

By William B. Caldwell IV

For the past 22 months, NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan has been charged with developing the Afghan Army, Air Force, and Police. Since day one, developing Afghan leaders has been the command’s number one priority to ensure NATO can transition geographic and institutional lead to Afghanistan. We know in our militaries that good leaders make the most […]

Afghanistan NATO

New Atlanticist

Aug 29, 2011

Thinking Outside the Bilateral Box: Global Challenges and the China-U.S. Relationship

By Banning Garrett

To foresee and help navigate the future relationship over the next 20 years and beyond between China and the United States, the two countries need to think outside the U.S.-China bilateral box. Relations between Beijing and Washington will not be determined only by bilateral issues such as Taiwan, Tibet, trade, human rights, PLA military modernization, […]

China

New Atlanticist

Aug 29, 2011

Slow and Steady…and Censored?

By Riley Barnes

In the race for influence and prestige in the 21st century, Asia is divided into two burgeoning powers with very different concepts of what will win the development and world leader game. China may have better infrastructure, more universities, and fewer poor, but India represents the model of democratic and free growth. China’s quick development […]

China

New Atlanticist

Aug 29, 2011

From the Halls of Montezuma to the Shores of Tripoli?

By Julian Lindley-French

Writing in Time.com Professor Gordon Adams of the Stimson Center in Washington gave me a bit of a kicking following my blog “Well Done, NATO”. I had suggested that NATO, the EU and its member-nations endeavour to support Libya’s National Transitional Council with the stabilisation and reconstruction of Libya. Gordon rather forcibly objected, citing failures […]

NATO Security & Defense

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

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