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
Jul 29, 2025

The Russia pressure menu: Options to convince Putin to negotiate on Ukraine

As the US president cuts his deadline for Russia to ten days, there are several options for him to increase pressure on Moscow to pursue peace.

New Atlanticist
Jul 24, 2025

Dispatch from Manila: A lesson in calling out Chinese maritime aggression

By
Markus Garlauskas, Philip W. Yu

As the Philippines has focused more on Chinese threats to itself, Manila also seems increasingly inclined to see its own security as connected to that of the broader region.

China
Indo-Pacific

New Atlanticist
Jul 1, 2025

The US must enforce sanctions to prevent Iran from rebuilding its nuclear program

By
Kimberly Donovan

To ensure that Tehran cannot get its hands on the financial resources it would need to rebuild its nuclear program, Iran sanctions enforcement should start with China.

Economic Sanctions
Iran

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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 […]

New Atlanticist

Apr 1, 2011

Fighting to the Last American?: America and the End of the European Age

By Julian Lindley-French

The European age is finally over! Five hundred years after it began with the Spanish conquest of Latin America the Libya imbroglio marks the final end of Europe’s strategic pretence. For all the rhetoric from Paris and London and the belated ‘leadership’ of NATO Europeans clearly lack the strategic imagination, political ambition and basic military means to […]

New Atlanticist

Apr 1, 2011

Hope and Change Won’t Work in Libya

By Jeffrey Lightfoot

President Obama ran his hugely successful 2008 election campaign on the themes of hope and change. Unfortunately, he is also running the Libya war based on the same themes with far less success. The coalition strategy is to hope that escalating airstrikes will fracture Colonel Gaddafi’s inner circle and give the ragtag group of rebels […]

New Atlanticist

Apr 1, 2011

Libya Mission Creep: What If Gaddafi Doesn’t Fall Soon?

By James Joyner

Mother Jones’ Kevin Drum says he backed Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton because he had greater faith in the former’s judgment, especially on the matter of kinetic interventions. Alas, that confidence is being sorely tested. Obama has been a disappointment on civil liberties and national security issues, but since I frankly don’t think any modern […]

New Atlanticist

Mar 31, 2011

NATO After Libya

By Stanley Sloan

NATO has been given an important role in the campaign against Moammar Gaddafi’s regime in Libya. However, this important task will not likely settle the on-going debate about NATO’s future. It has become popular in recent years for academics and commentators to question the validity of the NATO commitment for the United States and Canada […]

New Atlanticist

Mar 31, 2011

Saudi Nukes in Gulf

By Arnaud de Borchgrave

Overlooked in the welter of fast moving events throughout the Arab world was a Saudi Arabian call for transforming the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council into "an entity identical to the (27-nation) European Union" — plus nuclear weapons. Saudi Arabia has grown impatient "Waiting for Godot." Samuel Beckett’s famous play depicts the "meaninglessness of life," with […]

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