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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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.

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

New Atlanticist

Oct 22, 2010

New world disorder

By Arnaud de Borchgrave

U.S. President Barack Obama’s reset button for a new America as the shining beacon on the hill for the rest of the world to look up to is jammed. And the prophets of doom and gloom are soaring.

New Atlanticist

Oct 21, 2010

Looking Beyond the EU: Natural Gas Politics in Ukraine

By Alexandros Petersen

The election of the relatively pro-Russian Victor Yanukovich as President of Ukraine in February 2010 was supposed to herald a new era of energy stability in a country wracked by natural gas cutoffs, disputes among energy-rich oligarchs and perennial political turmoil, but recent events show that energy security in Central Asia and a stable supply […]

European Union
International Organizations

New Atlanticist

Oct 21, 2010

If Pakistanis Thought Like Americans

By Harlan Ullman

With the U.S.-Pakistani strategic dialogue resuming in Washington today, the relationship could hardly be worse. The trust deficit, already vast, has been stressed to the breaking point by NATO incursions into Pakistan and the subsequent ten-day closure of the major land supply route from Karachi to Afghanistan in retaliation. But there is a grimmer prospect. […]

New Atlanticist

Oct 20, 2010

Cybered Conflict vs. Cyber War

By Chris Demchak

The US military named cyberspace a military domain and spawned endless repetitive conferences trying to fit cyberspace into concepts tied to the air, land, sea, and even nuclear domains. The domain designation is useful for parsing the bureaucratic lines of authority among military services. It also makes for more accustomed objectives if our military seeks […]

Cybersecurity
Security & Defense

New Atlanticist

Oct 19, 2010

Trans-Atlantic Austerity: Can NATO Remain Relevant Amid Defense Cuts?

By Ian Brzezinski and Damon Wilson

When NATO leaders convene in Lisbon in November to adopt a new Strategic Concept, the alliance’s blueprint for the future, they will find that trans-Atlantic security has entered an age of austerity. Burdened by weakened economies, allied governments are cutting their defense budgets, some significantly. However, retrenchment and reduced ambitions are not NATO’s only options. […]

New Atlanticist

Oct 19, 2010

The Afghan Peace Process

By Don Snow

There was encouraging news out of Afghanistan this week–for a change. That news was that the Karzai government in Kabul and the Taliban leadership (which part or parts unspecified) have entered into preliminary discussions about meeting face-to-face to pursue a peace settlement to their civil war, in which the United States insinuated itself in 2001 […]

New Atlanticist

Oct 18, 2010

Sarkozy Finds a Cause Worth Fighting For

By Jeffrey Lightfoot

2010 has been a brutal year for French President Nicolas Sarkozy. His UMP party suffered a major setback in regional elections in March. His budget minister has been at the center of a series of murky scandals involving the heiress of the L’Oréal fortune. And his approval ratings have fallen to 30 percent, the lowest […]

New Atlanticist

Oct 18, 2010

Counterrevolution in Ukraine

By Alexander Motyl

Almost six years after it began, the Orange Revolution formally ended on October 1, 2010, when Ukraine’s constitutional court reversed the “political reform” imposed on the presidency as part of the popular democracy movement’s uprising.

Ukraine

New Atlanticist

Oct 15, 2010

NATO’s Obsolescence is Greatly Exaggerated

By James Joyner

Daniel Larison responds to "The Case Against the Case Against NATO" with a strong Realist rebuttal. But it continues to conflate legitimate concerns about American interventionism with the Alliance itself.

New Atlanticist

Oct 15, 2010

COIN Is Dead

By Michael Cohen

Fred Kaplan notices something about that whole COIN strategy in Afghanistan – it ain’t working and the US military is moving on

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