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.

The Strategic Influence Game 2: China in Space

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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Dive deep into developing stories, guided by continually updated expert analysis that leaves you better informed about the most pressing global issues behind the headlines.

Markup

Our experts decipher and annotate major speeches and policy documents to break down big ideas and lay them out in plain language.

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

New Atlanticist

Oct 11, 2011

The Strategic Influence Game 1: High Noon in the High North

By Julian Lindley-French

Who said geopolitics is dead? Ninety-four years on from the October 1917 revolution if anyone had any lingering illusions that Russia is a democracy they were surely dispelled by the 24 September announcement that President Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin would simply swap jobs in 2012. Moscow likes to call Russia a ‘managed democracy’. In […]

New Atlanticist

Oct 11, 2011

Afghanistan and the Future of US Foreign Policy

By Derek Reveron

Ten years after the 9/11 attacks and the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, one thing is clear-the United States now seeks to export security around the world.

New Atlanticist

Oct 7, 2011

Pressure Builds on Iran at Nuclear Watchdog Agency

By Barbara Slavin

As Iran continues a slow march toward potential nuclear weapons capability, diplomatic action to contain the programme is likely to shift to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), whose director general, Yukiya Amano, has taken a harder line than his predecessor about alleged military research by Iran’s nuclear scientists. Experts on the Iranian nuclear programme […]

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