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
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 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 […]

New Atlanticist

Oct 7, 2011

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin: The Once and Future Czar

By David Smith

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on September 24 surprised political observers with what many believed was an early announcement that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will be the regime’s candidate for president in the March 4, 2012 elections. "I think it would be correct,” Medvedev told a United Russia Party Congress, “for the congress to support the candidacy […]

New Atlanticist

Oct 7, 2011

Rebooting the IMF

By Hilda Ochoa-Brillembourg

When computers malfunction there is often a simple recourse: Rebooting. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been through an undeservedly rough patch. As the fiscal policeman to the developing world, it lost relevance, as policemen do, when the going was good: Emerging markets were booming, liquidity was abundant, trade was growing, and, by and large, […]

New Atlanticist

Oct 7, 2011

China Currency Manipulation: Protectionism Not The Answer

By Hugh De Santis

Not for nothing is election season in Washington called “silly season.” The latest example is the China currency bill pushed by co-sponsors Senators Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and supported by many Republicans.

New Atlanticist

Oct 6, 2011

Afghanistan War: Ten Years Later

By James Joyner

Ten years ago tomorrow, President Bush announced that “the United States military has begun strikes against al Qaeda terrorist training camps and military installations of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.” In his announcement, Bush told us that “These carefully targeted actions are designed to disrupt the use of Afghanistan as a terrorist base of operations, […]

Afghanistan

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