New Atlanticist

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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.

Rules for Successful Engagement with Iran

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.

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Rules for Successful Engagement with Iran

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

Rules for Successful Engagement with Iran

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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Content

New Atlanticist

Aug 30, 2011

Rules for Successful Engagement with Iran

By Hossein Mousavian

In his first year in office, President Barack Obama made unprecedented diplomatic gestures towards Iran, raising hopes that the animosities that have plagued US-Iran relations for the past three decades might be overcome and rapprochement achieved. In a special message on March 21, 2009, commemorating the Persian New Year, Obama promised a new approach that […]

Iran

New Atlanticist

Aug 30, 2011

Leadership Lessons of an Afghan Colonel

By William B. Caldwell IV

For the past 22 months, NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan has been charged with developing the Afghan Army, Air Force, and Police. Since day one, developing Afghan leaders has been the command’s number one priority to ensure NATO can transition geographic and institutional lead to Afghanistan. We know in our militaries that good leaders make the most […]

Afghanistan NATO

New Atlanticist

Aug 29, 2011

Thinking Outside the Bilateral Box: Global Challenges and the China-U.S. Relationship

By Banning Garrett

To foresee and help navigate the future relationship over the next 20 years and beyond between China and the United States, the two countries need to think outside the U.S.-China bilateral box. Relations between Beijing and Washington will not be determined only by bilateral issues such as Taiwan, Tibet, trade, human rights, PLA military modernization, […]

China

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
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