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

Sep 28, 2010

NATO’s Relevance

By James Joyner

“Is NATO irrelevant?” That’s a question that Harvard’s Steve Walt asked on his Foreign Policy blog last week and a major subtext of the NATO Beyond Afghanistan conference held yesterday at the Atlantic Council.

New Atlanticist

Sep 28, 2010

9/11 Imbroglio

By Arnaud de Borchgrave

No sooner did Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad suggest from the rostrum of the U.N. General Assembly that most of the world believes the U.S. government was involved in a 9/11 conspiracy, than 32 nations followed the U.S. delegation as it walked out. These were members of NATO, the European Union (21 countries are members of […]

International Organizations Politics & Diplomacy

New Atlanticist

Sep 27, 2010

Afghan Realities

By James Stavridis

Gilles Dorronsoro, a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, argued in the New York Times on Sept. 15 that the Western coalition will not defeat the insurgency in Afghanistan, and “needs to start facing reality and begin negotiating with the Taliban before it’s too late.” NATO’s commander responds.

New Atlanticist

Sep 27, 2010

Yanukovych in Wonderland

By Alexander Motyl

The policy and business elites who attended the Atlantic Council’s September 24th luncheon in New York with Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych may be wondering just what he meant by what he said—and, more important, by what he did not say.

NATO Security & Defense

New Atlanticist

Sep 24, 2010

Freedom and Defense Spending

By James Joyner

In a rather odd posting at RealClearWorld‘s Compass blog titled “Defense Spending and Freedom,” Greg Scoblette argues: If I’m reading this op-ed from Danielle Pletka and Thomas Donnelly correctly it sounds like they don’t want the Republican party (or the Tea Party) to cut defense spending. Which is fine, so far as it goes. But they […]

New Atlanticist

Sep 23, 2010

Obama’s Wars: Afghanistan and with His Generals

By James Joyner

Bob Woodward’s latest insider book, Obama’s Wars, reveals that the White House team has outsized egos, sharp disagreements over policy, petty bickering, and bureaucratic infighting. It also tells us some things we didn’t know.

New Atlanticist

Sep 23, 2010

Critical Questions on Iran

By Stuart Eizenstat and Mark Brzezinski

A confluence of events in the next few weeks again will put Iran at the top of the Obama administration’s foreign policy agenda and could shape its course in the months ahead. The annual United Nations General Assembly this week is likely to include another anti-American, anti-Western, anti-Israel rant from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, while […]

International Organizations Politics & Diplomacy

New Atlanticist

Sep 22, 2010

Muddling Through to 2025

By James Joyner

Global Governance 2025, a joint effort of the Atlantic Council and its global partners, offers a wide range of trajectories for the international system depending on whether we adequately address known threats.

European Union International Organizations

New Atlanticist

Sep 22, 2010

Please Fence Me In

By Harlan Ullman

Many decades ago, cowboy actor-singer Gene Autry made famous the tune, “Don’t Fence Me In.” Today, in the diaphanous territory between Afghanistan and Pakistan, a better song could well be “Please fence me in.” Indeed, that may be one of the few alternatives left if that region is ever to be stabilized and made more […]

New Atlanticist

Sep 21, 2010

Swedish Elections: Lessons for Globalization

By Magnus Nordenman

Over the weekend Swedish voters re-elected the center-right coalition that has governed the country for the last four years. This is historic, since it is the first time since the 1930’s that a center-right government has won two elections in a row. The Economist even proclaimed “the death of social-democratic Sweden.”

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