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

Apr 7, 2011

How to Win a Kazakh Election

By Joseph Hammond

On Friday Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev will officially be sworn in for a new five-year term in office, following an election which saw him take home a staggering 95.5 percent of the vote. Turn out was also officially 90 percent. Like so many elections before it in Kazakhstan, the polls were marred by reports of […]

New Atlanticist

Apr 7, 2011

NATO Renewed from Afghanistan

By Jan Techau

Anders Fogh Rasmussen has won the Afghan War. When he became Secretary General of NATO on the 1st of August, 2009, he took over an organization that was threatened by severe "Afghanistan depression." The Alliance appeared to be over extended. Neither the military mission nor the civil reconstruction projects were progressing, the Americans, Dutch and […]

New Atlanticist

Apr 6, 2011

What Next in Ivory Coast?

By Peter Pham

As the Ivory Coast’s former president, Laurent Gbagbo, stubbornly clings to power, his writ confined to a bunker under his house in the commercial capital of Abidjan and surrounded only by his combative wife Simone and a coterie of diehard supporters, the relevant questions are less about the fate of the besieged strongman than what […]

New Atlanticist

Apr 6, 2011

America Addicted to War? Hardly

By Derek Reveron

Stephen Walt recently posed the question in Foreign Policy, Is America Addicted to War? Prompted by the latest international intervention in Libya, Walt explains: It remains to be seen whether this latest lurch into war [in Libya] will pay off or not, and whether the United States and its allies will have saved lives or […]

New Atlanticist

Apr 6, 2011

Unintended and Intended Consequences

By Harlan Ullman

Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld elevated the words “known and unknown” to high art forms. In essence, Rumsfeld was referring to both the intended and, more importantly, unintended consequences of policy decisions on difficult and often intractable issues. Indeed, in 2011, it is the unintended consequences of what is taking place in North […]

New Atlanticist

Apr 4, 2011

Why Nigeria Matters

By Peter Pham

With everything from the ongoing fighting in Libya to the massive anti-regime protests in Yemen to the vicious endgame playing itself out in Côte d’Ivoire all happening at once, policymakers and analysts might be forgiven for not having paid much attention to the two postponements over the weekend of the Nigerian parliamentary elections which were […]

New Atlanticist

Apr 4, 2011

The Realist Prism: Libya Could Shift NATO Focus Southward

By Nikolas Gvosdev

The commencement of military operations in Libya has led to some unexpected reactions in Eastern European capitals. It was widely expected that Russia, whose uneasiness with the very principle of humanitarian intervention is well-known, would have used its veto at the U.N. Security Council to block the passage of Resolution 1973. After all, Russia’s firm […]

New Atlanticist

Apr 4, 2011

Celebrity Diplomacy

By Arnaud de Borchgrave

No sooner did Libya’s ragtag army of anti-Gadhafi insurgents retreat along the Mediterranean coast toward Benghazi than France’s SSP 1 chartered a Falcon executive jet to meet with dissident leaders. On board was the "Shameless Self-Promoter," as he is known, who frequently makes headlines in the French media as BHL — Bernard-Henri Levy. After two […]

New Atlanticist

Apr 1, 2011

Afghanistan’s Tet?

By James Joyner

Todays’ horrific attack on the UN complex in Mazar-i Sharif may well the the Tet Offensive of Afghanistan: a strategically minor event that permanently changed the American public’s view of the war. Details are still sketchy as of this writing but some number of foreign employees (seven, ten, or twenty have been variously reported) of the UN office […]

New Atlanticist

Apr 1, 2011

Europe Had Better Wake Up

By Lord Robertson

I support the Government in what they are doing, through NATO, in Libya. There is absolutely no doubt that, had timely action not been taken, Benghazi and eastern Libya would have fallen, and the consequences for the civilian population in that area would have been grim indeed. Our forces in the air, at sea and […]

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