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.

Afghan Security Faces Long-Term Challenges

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

Sep 2, 2011

Afghan Security Faces Long-Term Challenges

By Barbara Slavin

U.S.-led efforts to build Afghan security forces capable of preventing Taliban resurgence face a series of challenges, from the reluctance of southern Pashtuns to serve in a national army, to maintaining the billions of dollars in infrastructure and equipment provided by the U.S. and other foreign countries over the past decade. Brig. Gen. Guy “Tom” […]

Afghanistan

New Atlanticist

Sep 2, 2011

Global Con?

By Arnaud de Borchgrave

Were the United States, France, Britain, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates — the NATO-led coalition that set out to overthrow Col. Moammar Gadhafi’s regime — snookered by al-Qaida? A preposterous scenario with some disturbing factual elements. In the early 1990s, when James Woolsey was the director of the CIA, Gadhafi appealed […]

Europe & Eurasia Libya

New Atlanticist

Sep 2, 2011

Tough Talk on Debt Crisis

By Hugh De Santis

Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke and IMF managing director Christine Lagarde have publicly chastised political leaders on both sides of the Atlantic for their failure to develop policies that stimulate economic growth. But given the political divisions in Europe and the US, their blunt talk is not likely to lead to policies that restart the rich […]

Economy & Business European Union

New Atlanticist

Sep 1, 2011

Rebuilding Libya

By Jason Pack and Katherine White

As the Libyan rebels continue to mop up resistance inside Tripoli and extend the nominal authority of the Transitional National Council to the rest of Libya, it is important to remember that the establishment of a new Libya will take time and face challenges even greater than those required to topple Gaddafi. Despite these immense […]

Libya

New Atlanticist

Sep 1, 2011

Euro Bonds: Hope for the Euro Zone

By Max Hirsch

Launched January 1, 2001 to create a stronger and more stable European economic union, the euro experiment is failing. To save it, member nations must go beyond a common currency and embrace a common economy by issuing a common interest euro bond. The ongoing crises in the Eurozone demonstrate the problems with having seventeen countries […]

Economy & Business European Union

New Atlanticist

Sep 1, 2011

Congress and the Cutter’s Blade

By Don Snow

After a month’s respite, in which the major political events have been the emergence of Cowboy Rick Perry in the GOP race and some sniping at President Obama for spending a week at Martha’s Vineyard, Congress will return to Washington next week. Like everyone else, I can hardly wait. Neither can your friends and neighbors […]

United States and Canada

New Atlanticist

Aug 31, 2011

How NATO is Perceived in Russia (or Lessons in Optimism)

By Robert Pszczel

Let us start with a few snapshots. Exhibit one – the Levada Center opinion poll conducted in January 2011 showed NATO being described as an adversary by 23 percent of Russians (Chechen rebels came first on that list with 43 percent, followed by USA with 28 percent).

NATO Russia

New Atlanticist

Aug 31, 2011

The Worst Journey in the World

By Julian Lindley-French

Seventy years ago this day the first Arctic Convoy set off from Scotland en route to Murmansk in Northern Russia. Between August 1941 and May 1945, 78 convoys comprising some 1400 merchant ships completed what Winston Churchill called, “the worst journey in the world” to deliver vital war supplies to Soviet Russia under a lend-lease […]

United Kingdom

New Atlanticist

Aug 31, 2011

Lead Britannia!

By Harlan Ullman

August, not April, is the cruelest month. In the 20th century, two world wars were started. America’s long and tragic engagement in Vietnam and Saddam Hussein’s ill-fated incursion into Kuwait were conceived in August. If this August’s events — from Afghanistan and the Middle East to economic roller coasters, riots in Britain and hurricanes in […]

United Kingdom

New Atlanticist

Aug 30, 2011

Running on Empty – Why Europe and the US Continue to Disappoint the Markets

By Garrett Workman

Over the course of the past few months, we at the Council have been understandably, and I think rightly, heavily focused on the enormous economic implications of Europe’s sovereign debt crisis. As country after country comes under the watchful and discerning eyes of the markets, Europe’s leaders seem increasingly perplexed and incapable of undertaking the […]

Economy & Business European Union

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