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

Apr 11, 2011

A Thaw in Ukraine?

By Adrian Karatnycky

The recent indictment of former President Leonid Kuchma for abuse of power in the case of the murder in 2000 of investigative journalist Heorhiy Gongadze has sent shockwaves through the Ukrainian body politic.

Ukraine

New Atlanticist

Apr 11, 2011

Atlantic Update 4/11/11

By Klee Aiken

Europe is divided as the Netherlands and the U.K. sue Iceland, politics cloud the one year anniversary of the air disaster in Smolensk, and Italy uses "dirty tricks" to deal with the influx of refugees.

New Atlanticist

Apr 8, 2011

Libya SNAFU: You Get What You Train For

By James Joyner

Continuing problems with the coalition operation in Libya reinforce an old military adage: You fight like you train. Yesterday, we learned that Swedish jets were grounded because the air base didn’t stock the right type of fuel. Today, we learned Libyan rebels were painting their vehicles pink after yet another incident in which NATO mistakenly fired on them, […]

New Atlanticist

Apr 8, 2011

Global Domestic Politics

By Frederick Kempe

One of the most important findings in my new book, Berlin 1961: Kennedy, Khrushchev and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth, is that domestic politics shapes foreign policy in ways that most historians have failed to adequately recognize. In 1961, when the Berlin Wall went up, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev was fighting off challenges of […]

New Atlanticist

Apr 8, 2011

Britain Seeks Greater Pakistani Role in Securing Domestic Security Issues

By Luv Puri

The writing on the wall was clear when the British Prime Minister David Cameron visited Pakistan. The main agenda of the prime minister’s visit was to repair the soured relations between Britain and Pakistan. The relations dipped last year during the last visit of British Prime Minister to India when he lambasted Pakistani government for […]

United Kingdom

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 […]

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