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

May 27, 2011

Arab Spring’s Somber Warning

By Harlan Ullman

This column has forecast how the Arab Spring could too easily metastasize when or if the powerful causal forces of great public discontent aren’t dispersed or reliever. What is interesting is to speculate whether the power of discontent could spread and not merely within the region. What is happening in Europe and in the United […]

New Atlanticist

May 26, 2011

Obama’s Crucial Moment in Poland

By Kurt Volker Vejvoda Damon Wilson

President Obama’s visit to Europe this week is giving him the opportunity to bury once and for all perceptions that have dogged his administration from the outset: that the US has lost interest in Europe, and has put a higher priority on resetting relations with an authoritarian Russia than it has on the completion of […]

New Atlanticist

May 26, 2011

Ratko Mladic Arrest Paves Way for Serbia EU Accession

By James Joyner

Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb general blamed for the massacre of 8,000 Muslims at Srebrenica, has been caught after 16 years on the run from a UN war crimes indictment. Serbian President Boris Tadic announced the arrest this morning, proclaiming "All war criminals must face justice" and promising speedy extradition to The Hague for […]

European Union International Organizations

New Atlanticist

May 26, 2011

Resetting the Transatlantic Partnership

By James Joyner

While President Obama has had some amusing gaffes on his trip to London, including getting the year wrong in the guest book and an awkward toast to the Queen, his speech to Parliament hit all the right notes. He began with some humor: I am told that the last three speakers here have been the Pope, Her […]

New Atlanticist

May 26, 2011

USA and the ICC: An Unfinished Debate

By Robert Bracknell

I recently returned from a week in Iraq, where I trained an elite security force unit on human rights and the law of combat operations. Discussions regarding the responsibility of commanders for the acts of their forces migrated to the issue of the United Nations’ International Criminal Court. One Iraqi officer asked me, "If the […]

New Atlanticist

May 26, 2011

The Incredible Shrinking Ahmadinejad

By Barbara Slavin

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is now discovering what his predecessors in Islamic Iran’s unique dual system of government all learned to their sorrow: You serve at the pleasure of the supreme leader, and he prefers his presidents weak. In the aftermath of a failed attempt by Ahmadinejad to fire Iran’s intelligence minister last month, Supreme Leader Ali […]

New Atlanticist

May 25, 2011

Time for a NATO-China Council?

By Jorge Benitez

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen recently expressed a desire for NATO and China to develop a deeper relationship, comparable to the NATO-Russia Council. He observed that NATO has formal relationships with four of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. The US, UK, and France are founding members of the Alliance and […]

China NATO

New Atlanticist

May 25, 2011

US-UK Relationship Essential, Not Special

By Julian Lindley-French

President Obama has done Britain and Europe a huge favor. By recasting the ‘special’ relationship as an essential relationship the president has released London from the shackles of an increasingly hollow ‘specialness.’

United Kingdom

New Atlanticist

May 24, 2011

Bringing a Gun to a Knife Fight: Striking Back in Cyber Conflict

By Jason Healey

If you pull a knife on a gunslinger, don’t be surprised if you get shot. This is one of the messages of the President’s new International Cyber Strategy.

Cybersecurity Security & Defense

New Atlanticist

May 24, 2011

Strategy and Technology: A Fading Lesson from European History

By Julian Lindley-French

In Memoriam. Dawn. 24 May, 2011. North Sea. Seventy years ago to the hour a fifteen inch (38cm) shell from the German fast battleship KM Bismarck entered above the aft main magazine of the British battlecruiser HMS Hood – the ‘mighty Hood’. The ensuing explosion had the force of a small atomic weapon and the […]

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