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.

Vladimir, Fear the Arab Spring’s Message

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.

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

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

Oct 24, 2011

Vladimir, Fear the Arab Spring’s Message

By Anna Borshchevskaya

The protests sweeping the Middle East have revolved around economics and accountability. After decades of corrupt and stagnant rule, Tunisians, Egyptians, Libyans and Syrians found themselves impoverished and no longer willing to acquiesce to dictatorship. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s announcement last month that he would seek a third presidential term raises the possibility that […]

Russia

New Atlanticist

Oct 21, 2011

Taking Government Back

By Shuja Nawaz

The perhaps incorrectly-named Occupy Wall Street movement in the United States appears to be gaining momentum, and even gaining traction overseas. I say “incorrectly-named” since conversations with the protesters indicate that they wish to take back power from the current representatives of government and not just take over Wall Street. The movement contains a congeries […]

New Atlanticist

Oct 21, 2011

A Smart EU Reponse to Yanukovych

By Borut Grgic

The turmoil that has gripped European-Ukrainian relations following the sentencing of Yulia Tymoshenko risks jeopardizing an important strategic relationship, and both sides stand to lose big from this fallout. Whether or not Tymoshenko, Ukraine’s former prime minister, is guilty, was given a fair trial or should be punished for her commercial interests and dealings while […]

European Union International Organizations

New Atlanticist

Oct 21, 2011

Belarus Is Heading to Default

By Anders Aslund

Belarus is heading to default. This country of 10 million people is running out of international currency reserves. Officially, they were down to $2.2 billion on October 1, which is a month’s worth of imports. But when reserves are so small the question always arises whether they are really usable. Meanwhile inflation surged and it […]

Belarus Economy & Business

New Atlanticist

Oct 20, 2011

Post-Gaddafi Era Made Permanent

By James Joyner

Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi was killed earlier today marking, as President Obama put it, “the end of a long, painful period for the Libyan people.” His death raises several interesting questions.

Libya

New Atlanticist

Oct 20, 2011

Calculating the Costs of War

By Arnaud de Borchgrave

Leon E. Panetta’s first major address as defense secretary was clearly designed to be magisterial, the credo of the Free World, still headed by the United States, cognizant of its worldwide responsibilities, albeit with much budgetary belt-tightening. He didn’t mention the two wasteful wars that had little to do with defending Western civilization.

New Atlanticist

Oct 20, 2011

A Kingdom for a Strategy

By Harlan Ullman

Strategy and weather share a common limitation: People constantly talk about both yet, in today’s environment, little can be done to affect either. Above all, strategy is about setting achievable and understandable aims. Sadly, politics and process have made that impossible today. A bitterly divided Congress and the failure of the Obama administration through substituting […]

United States and Canada

New Atlanticist

Oct 19, 2011

The Strategic Influence Game 3: The Loser

By Julian Lindley-French

Strategy is the art of gaining the greatest influence at least cost. For at least a generation the British elite have specialised in gaining the least influence at the greatest cost – be it in Europe, the transatlantic relationship or the wider world. Why? The factors are many but put simply Britain’s political elite have […]

United Kingdom

New Atlanticist

Oct 19, 2011

UN Rips Iran’s Human Rights Record in New Report

By Barbara Slavin

A forthcoming U.N. report, obtained by Foreign Policy in advance of its publication later this week, condemns the Iranian regime for wide-ranging human right abuses, including the secret killings of hundreds of prisoners under mysterious circumstances. The report, compiled by Ahmed Shaheed, the new U.N. “Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the […]

New Atlanticist

Oct 19, 2011

Putin and the US Senate

By Anna Borshchevskaya

On October 12, the U.S. Senate held a hearing to confirm National Security Council official Michael McFaul to be the next U.S. ambassador to Russia. McFaul used his testimony to defend the Obama administration’s “reset” policy, even though the policy has neither reversed the antagonism which marks the U.S.-Russian relationship nor improved U.S. national security. […]

Russia

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