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

Aug 29, 2011

Slow and Steady…and Censored?

By Riley Barnes

In the race for influence and prestige in the 21st century, Asia is divided into two burgeoning powers with very different concepts of what will win the development and world leader game. China may have better infrastructure, more universities, and fewer poor, but India represents the model of democratic and free growth. China’s quick development […]

China

New Atlanticist

Aug 29, 2011

From the Halls of Montezuma to the Shores of Tripoli?

By Julian Lindley-French

Writing in Time.com Professor Gordon Adams of the Stimson Center in Washington gave me a bit of a kicking following my blog “Well Done, NATO”. I had suggested that NATO, the EU and its member-nations endeavour to support Libya’s National Transitional Council with the stabilisation and reconstruction of Libya. Gordon rather forcibly objected, citing failures […]

NATO
Security & Defense

New Atlanticist

Aug 26, 2011

Libya Exposes Transatlantic Contradictions

By James Joyner

As the Libya crisis has unfolded these last several months, some long-festering contradictions have come to light. First, for a variety of reasons, many of us opposed American intervention in the conflict. As horrible as the potential humanitarian crisis in Benghazi could have been, preventing it did not strike us as a vital national interest […]

Libya

New Atlanticist

Aug 26, 2011

With the Storming of Libya’s Bastille, the Arab Revolutions Begin a New Phase

By Michele Dunne

As Libyan rebel forces surged into Muammar Gaddafi’s Bab al-Azizia compound on August 23, the reverberations of their celebratory gunfire were felt far beyond Tripoli.

Libya

New Atlanticist

Aug 26, 2011

Libya and Africa: The reset

By J. Peter Pham

With most of the Libyan capital now falling under the control of forces aligned with Libya’s Transitional National Council (TNC), greater time and attention can now be devoted to pondering the many questions which have been pushed to one side when the outcome of the conflict was still uncertain. These issues include legitimate concerns about […]

NATO
North Africa

New Atlanticist

Aug 26, 2011

The Social-Foreign Policy Frontier

By Derek Reveron

Anne-Marie Slaughter, former director of policy planning staff at the Department of State is exploring the new “foreign policy frontier” at the Atlantic. In one post, she describes how this “frontier is deeply social, as messy and unsatisfactory as that may be.” The proposition is not as controversial as it seems.

New Atlanticist

Aug 26, 2011

U.S. Humanitarian Activism: Libya and Syria

By Don Snow

The remaining hot spots from the Arab Spring are in Libya and Syria. In both cases, popular uprisings erupted against tyrannical governments inspired at least partially by the Arab Spring events that began in Tunisia and moved quickly to Egypt and elsewhere. Distinguishing characteristics of these two cases, however, have been the continuing brutality of […]

Libya
Syria

New Atlanticist

Aug 25, 2011

Libya’s Oil After Gaddafi

By Boyko Nitzov

Getting Libya’s oil flowing again is of crucial importance for the country’s recovery, stability, and prosperity. The proper management of the revenues derived from the petroleum sector is likely to define the government’s success or failure. Getting it right will be a technically difficult and politically sensitive task.

Libya

New Atlanticist

Aug 25, 2011

Libya Not Vindication for NATO But A Wake-up Call

By James Joyner

Scores of op-eds are springing forth declaring that the happy events taking place in Tripoli have vindicated the much-maligned NATO alliance and its performance in Libya. I’m an Atlanticist by conviction and profession, but the notion that helping take out Muammar Qaddafi after six months of heavy fighting proves much of anything is absurd. According […]

Libya

New Atlanticist

Aug 25, 2011

Why Libya Sceptics Were Proved Badly Wrong

By Anne-Marie Slaughter

Let us do a thought experiment. Imagine the UN did not vote to authorise the use of force in Libya in March. Nato did nothing; Colonel Muammer Gaddafi over-ran Benghazi; the US stood by; the Libyan opposition was reduced to sporadic uprisings, quickly crushed. The regimes in Yemen and Syria took note, and put down […]

Libya

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