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.

Gates Undermining Civilian Capacity With Plan To Bolster It

New Atlanticist
Jul 29, 2025

The Russia pressure menu: Options to convince Putin to negotiate on Ukraine 

As the US president cuts his deadline for Russia to ten days, there are several options for him to increase pressure on Moscow to pursue peace.

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Gates Undermining Civilian Capacity With Plan To Bolster It

New Atlanticist
Jul 24, 2025

Dispatch from Manila: A lesson in calling out Chinese maritime aggression

By
Markus Garlauskas, Philip W. Yu

As the Philippines has focused more on Chinese threats to itself, Manila also seems increasingly inclined to see its own security as connected to that of the broader region.

China
Indo-Pacific

Gates Undermining Civilian Capacity With Plan To Bolster It

New Atlanticist
Jul 1, 2025

The US must enforce sanctions to prevent Iran from rebuilding its nuclear program

By
Kimberly Donovan

To ensure that Tehran cannot get its hands on the financial resources it would need to rebuild its nuclear program, Iran sanctions enforcement should start with China.

Economic Sanctions
Iran

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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

New Atlanticist

May 7, 2010

Britain 2010 and America 2000

By James Joyner

Like the 2000 American presidential elections, the results of the 2010 parliamentary elections are drawing some attention to some oddities in the system and bringing calls for reform.  Most likely, the Brits will follow the lead of their American cousins and make no significant changes. Britain’s hung parliament, the first since 1974, is the result […]

United Kingdom

New Atlanticist

May 7, 2010

Britain’s Hung Parliament: What Now?

By James Joyner

As expected, yesterday’s UK elections resulted in a hung parliament, with the  Tories falling short of an outright majority needed to form a government on their own.  While Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats wound up in distant third, they’re now in the driver’s seat. Conservative leader David Cameron has reached out to Clegg to […]

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