New Atlanticist

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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.

To Save Europe, Italy Must Defy Its History

New Atlanticist
Sep 4, 2025

Dispatches from Damascus: The state of Syria’s postwar transition nine months after Assad’s fall

On a recent trip to the Syrian capital, Atlantic Council experts took note of how far the country has come since the Assad regime’s fall and what still needs to happen to secure peace and prosperity.

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To Save Europe, Italy Must Defy Its History

New Atlanticist
Aug 29, 2025

Twenty questions (and expert answers) about the negotiations to end Russia’s war in Ukraine

By
Atlantic Council experts

August saw a flurry of diplomatic activity to end Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. As September nears, Atlantic Council experts share their insights on what to expect next.

Conflict
Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding

To Save Europe, Italy Must Defy Its History

New Atlanticist
Aug 28, 2025

Germany wants to double its defense spending. Where should the money go?

By
Atlantic Council experts

After decades of Berlin underinvesting in its defense, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has plans to transform the Bundeswehr into Europe’s strongest military. 

Defense Policy
Europe & Eurasia

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New Atlanticist

Nov 15, 2011

To Save Europe, Italy Must Defy Its History

By Alexei Monsarrat

Italy has a nearly 3,000-year history of violent and costly attempts at cohesion. Now, its people must take unity to a totally new level, coming together over painful reforms that will make or break the world’s eighth-largest economy – and the euro currency that holds much of Europe together. The Nov. 12 resignation of Italian […]

New Atlanticist

Nov 14, 2011

The US Can’t Afford to Pass on Yemen

By Danya Greenfield

In the wake of the winds of change that swept from Tunis to Cairo and beyond, frustrated Yemenis took to the streets to demand an end to corruption, responsive government, and respect for their basic political and social rights. For more than nine months, mass protests have spread through the country and millions have repeatedly […]

Yemen

New Atlanticist

Nov 14, 2011

Black Swans Attack

By Arnaud de Borchgrave

“All our governments are insolvent. “No level of taxation could make them solvent. “So we must cut the source of our insolvency.

European Union International Organizations

New Atlanticist

Nov 10, 2011

Talking Tohoku in Tokyo

By Julian Lindley-French

Tokyo. What a city of uber-contrast. A concrete-scape beyond an eye’s leap that crawls and then creeps before eventually soaring and swooping around the old Imperial palace at its heart. This mega-city is periodically punctuated by serene oases of intimate greenery in which water, rock, and flora tease the imagination back toward a Japan long […]

Japan Nuclear Nonproliferation

New Atlanticist

Nov 10, 2011

Diplomacy is the Least Damaging Option with Iran

By Anne-Marie Slaughter

When it comes to Iran, the best is consistently the enemy of the good. The International Atomic Energy Agency report issued on Tuesday affirms what western governments already know or believe: that for all the sanctions and diplomacy, Iran continues to make steady progress toward producing a nuclear weapon. We might be able to make […]

New Atlanticist

Nov 10, 2011

Why Obama Should Take Out Iran’s Nuclear Program

By Eric S. Edelman Andrew F. Krepinevich Jr. and Evan Braden

The November 8 International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report casts further doubt on Iran’s continual claims that its nuclear program is intended solely for peaceful use.

New Atlanticist

Nov 9, 2011

Italy Too Big To Fail, Too Big to Save

By James Joyner

Overnight, Italy has replaced Greece as the poster child for the Eurozone crisis. While political will stood in the way of fixing Greece, Italy may be beyond fixing. Nobel economist and NYT columnist Paul Krugman snarked, "This is the way the euro ends. Not with a bang but with bunga-bunga." But, as the main feature in his own […]

New Atlanticist

Nov 9, 2011

NATO’s New Math: 600, 2012, and 0

By Harlan Ullman

Next May, NATO will have its biannual heads of government summit in Chicago. Few Americans are interested in or know much about NATO these days. Fewer are aware of this forthcoming summit and the crucial challenges facing the alliance and threatening its cohesion. The numbers in the headline — 600, 2012 and 0 — reflect […]

International Organizations NATO

New Atlanticist

Nov 9, 2011

Iran Nuclear Watchdog Details Pre-2003 Weapons Research

By Barbara Slavin

A new report on Iran’s nuclear programme provides substantial evidence that Iran carried out extensive research into how to make a nuclear weapon prior to 2003 but is shaky about how much work has continued. Citing “a wide variety of independent sources”, including material from 10 member states and from a foreign scientist who worked […]

Nuclear Nonproliferation Security & Defense

New Atlanticist

Nov 9, 2011

More than Liberia’s Fragile Democracy at Risk

By Peter Pham

No country in Africa is linked as closely to the United States as Liberia, a state that traces its origins to a philanthropic enterprise initiated by a group of prominent Americans authorized by a Congressional charter to establish a “land of liberty” for manumitted African American slaves as well as victims of the banned transatlantic […]

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