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

Stay updated

Explore our unique analysis

Fast Thinking

When major global news breaks, the Atlantic Council’s experts have you covered—delivering their sharpest rapid insight and forward-looking analysis direct to your inbox.

Experts React

Dive deep into developing stories, guided by continually updated expert analysis that leaves you better informed about the most pressing global issues behind the headlines.

Markup

Our experts decipher and annotate major speeches and policy documents to break down big ideas and lay them out in plain language.

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 […]

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 […]

Share

Issue briefs and reports