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.

Finishing The Job in Bosnia, Serbia, and Kosovo

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.

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

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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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 22, 2010

Finishing The Job in Bosnia, Serbia, and Kosovo

By Kurt Volker

Remember Bosnia? Kosovo? In the 1990s, we learned a new phrase – ethnic cleansing – and we embarked on the first of what have now been many interventions in regional crises. Yet 15 years after the Serbian massacre of more than 7,000 Muslims at Srebrenica, we have still not finished the job of making the […]

New Atlanticist

Apr 22, 2010

Ukrainian Coalition Deal Makes Government Unworkable

By Alexander Motyl

Most Ukrainian analysts agree that President Viktor Yanukovych’s decision to change the way governing coalitions are formed is, despite the Constitutional Court’s recent ruling to the contrary, unconstitutional. But how will that change actually affect the workings of government? Will it make for more or less stable government? Will it enhance or diminish the prospects […]

Ukraine

New Atlanticist

Apr 22, 2010

Cut Short-Range Nukes, Too

By Ralston-Robertson-Miller-Schake

With the new START treaty and the Nuclear Posture Review accomplished, the Obama administration has an enormous opportunity to capitalize on its momentum. It should propose that NATO negotiate with Moscow to reduce the number of short-range nuclear weapons in Europe.

New Atlanticist

Apr 21, 2010

Russia-Poland “Reset”?

By Angela Stent

Will the tragic plane crash over Smolensk that killed 96 of Poland’s top political elite provide the opening for a less fraught and more productive Russian-Polish relationship? That would require both countries coming to terms with a contested history, and with policy differences over the joint EU- Russia neighborhood, pipeline politics and broader questions of […]

New Atlanticist

Apr 21, 2010

Restoring Legitimacy in Kyrgyzstan

By Borut Grgic

With ousted President Kurmanbek Bakiyev now out of the country, and fears of a civil war weaning, the international community should carefully consider its agenda if it wishes to bringing about stability and true change to Kyrgyzstan. It would be a mistake to blindly accept the transition government as the trigger of the country’s democratic […]

New Atlanticist

Apr 21, 2010

Nuclear Iran: Accepting the ‘Unacceptable’

By Harlan Ullman

Iran possessing nuclear weapons is “unacceptable,” a warning repeated by many heads of state and senior government officials. The same was said of North Korea,although it may have little more than a nuclear device and thus far lacks a means of delivery.

New Atlanticist

Apr 20, 2010

Turkey’s Pivotal Future

By Robert Manning

It wasn’t exactly Page 1 news last month when Turkey responded to a Congressional committee labeling the murder of Armenians a century ago “genocide” by freezing its diplomatic, defense and energy ties to the U.S.

New Atlanticist

Apr 20, 2010

Afghan Hearts and Minds

By Don Snow

Ultimately, the United States can succeed in Afghanistan (whatever that means) if, and only if, we are able to convince the Afghan people that the outcome we favor is one that they support as well.

New Atlanticist

Apr 20, 2010

Africa Reboots

By Bono

I spent March with a delegation of activists, entrepreneurs and policy wonks roaming western, southern and eastern Africa trying very hard to listen — always hard for a big-mouthed Irishman. With duct tape over my gob, I was able to pick up some interesting melody lines everywhere from palace to pavement …Despite the almost deafening […]

Africa

New Atlanticist

Apr 19, 2010

Iceland Volcano Cloud Darkens World Economy

By James Joyner

The recent eruption of a volcano beneath Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull glacier has, thankfully, not cost any human lives. It has, however, caused enormous economic disruption, strained patience, and political infighting.

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