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

May 14, 2010

Britain’s Speedy Transitions

By James Joyner

In American presidential elections, held on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November, the new president is sworn in at noon on January 20 and he has his full team in place in, oh, two years. In the UK, the transition customarily takes place quite literally overnight and, when it takes a whole week […]

United Kingdom

New Atlanticist

May 14, 2010

Goodbye to Europe?

By James Joyner

"It is more than a little ironic that NATO has committed itself to defining a new strategic concept at precisely the moment the transatlantic relationship counts for less than at any time since the 1930s." So begins an FT op-ed by CFR president Richard Haass.

European Union International Organizations

New Atlanticist

May 13, 2010

Gates Undermining Civilian Capacity With Plan To Bolster It

By Laura Hall Gordon Adams

Secretary of Defense Bob Gates has rightly been hailed as a great public servant, a stellar Secretary, and a constructive partner to Secretary Clinton. He also frequently makes the case for building up civilian international affairs capacity in his most prominent policy speeches. Yet a number of his proposals applying this policy in fact undercut […]

New Atlanticist

May 13, 2010

Signals of Foreign Policy Vigor in London

By Frederick Kempe

Atlantic Council president and CEO Fred Kempe was interviewed by CFR’s Deborah Jerome on the foreign policy implications of the change of Government in the UK. After forming the first coalition government in sixty-five years, Conservative David Cameron, now prime minister, and Liberal Democrat Nick Clegg, his deputy, touted their shotgun marriage as what Cameron […]

United Kingdom

New Atlanticist

May 12, 2010

Cameron, Clegg, and the Special Relationship

By James Joyner

After more than a year of British hand-wringing over the status of the Special Relationship under President Obama, the shoe is now on the other foot, with some Americans wondering whether the new occupants of No. 10 Downing Street will be quite as Atlanticist. Cameron and Clegg: Rhetoric vs. Reality It’s true that both David […]

United Kingdom

New Atlanticist

May 12, 2010

Can We Succeed in Afghanistan and Pakistan?

By Harlan Ullman

This week’s very visible visit of Afghan President Hamid Karzai to Washington, combined with the fallout from Faisal Shahzad’s failed bombing attempt in New York’s Times Square and the specter of forcing Pakistan to go after terrorist training camps in North Waziristan, raises the question of whether or not “we” can succeed in Afghanistan and […]

New Atlanticist

May 12, 2010

Ukraine: Containing the Con

By Alexander Motyl

For five years Viktor Yanukovych claimed to be a democratic, moderate, and unifier—everything that the Orange elites presumably were not. In the two months that he has occupied the president’s seat, Yanukovych has shown that he is an authoritarian, radical, and disunifier—everything that the Orange revolutionaries had accused him of being in 2004.

Ukraine

New Atlanticist

May 11, 2010

Tory-Lib Dem Coalition Imminent, Inevitable

By James Joyner

Yesterday, in a bold gambit to secure a progressive Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition, Gordon Brown announced his resignation as prime minister and party leader. He failed. All signs point to an imminent power sharing arrangement between the plurality winning Conservatives and the third place Lib Dems.

United Kingdom

New Atlanticist

May 10, 2010

Trillion Dollar Bet on the Euro

By James Joyner

The Economist‘s Charlemagne sums it up with characteristic pith: "At two in the morning on May 10th, European Union finance ministers agreed a huge increase in their political will to defend Europe’s single currency, backed by a stunning €750 billion in aid for weak links in the 16 member eurozone. Simultaneously, the European Central Bank […]

New Atlanticist

May 10, 2010

End of Ukraine and Future of Eurasia

By Alexander Motyl

For the first time in 20 years, Ukraine’s disappearance as a state is imaginable. Since Ukraine is a pivotal state of great geopolitical significance to the stability of both Europe and Asia, its collapse could have considerable geopolitical consequences.

Europe & Eurasia NATO

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