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

Jun 10, 2010

NATO a Permanent Alliance: Introduction

By Stanley Sloan

It has become popular in recent years to argue that NATO is no longer serving the interests of either the Europeans or the Americans. Many of these arguments end with the suggestion that the European Union should take over responsibility for defense of European interests, variously accomplished by the United States withdrawing from NATO and […]

New Atlanticist

Jun 10, 2010

Collaboration in Space for International Global Maritime Awareness (C-SIGMA)

By George Guy Thomas

National Security Presidential Directive-41/Homeland Security Presidential Directive-13 establishes U.S. policy for enhancing our national security and protecting our interests in the maritime domain. Specifically, it directs that maritime domain awareness (MDA) efforts be undertaken "to develop an enhanced capability to identify threats to the maritime domain as early and as distant from our shores as […]

New Atlanticist

Jun 10, 2010

World Collapse Explained in 3 Minutes

By James Joyner

The Australian comedy team of John Clarke and Bryan Dawe present a hilarious and yet informative take on the Euro debt crisis. This duo, likely unfamiliar to our American and European readers, have been appearing together on Australian television doing satirical interviews since 1989, first on "A Current Affair" and on "The 7:30 Report" since […]

New Atlanticist

Jun 9, 2010

Review: A Little War That Shook The World

By Frederick Kempe and Damon Wilson

Georgia has become the West’s “inconvenient truth.” Though he never quite says it this way, that is the message of Ronald Asmus’ masterful first version of the history of the Russian-Georgian War of 2008, “A Little War That Shook the World.” Asmus documents a narrative of Russian behavior towards its southern neighbor that is dissonant […]

New Atlanticist

Jun 9, 2010

European Model Down – But Too Early To Count Out

By Kurt Volker

Why does the world today no longer see Europe as a model, as it seemed to do only a few years ago? It’s simple: The world can’t be expected to believe in a European model that Europeans don’t seem to believe in themselves. What is the “European model?” It seems to consist of some combination […]

New Atlanticist

Jun 9, 2010

Exploiting a Possibly Dangerous Summer

By Harlan Ullman

With official summer 12 days away, the temperature in Washington is already blistering. Whether this is a metaphor for an overheated political summer remains to be seen but signs and symptoms of lurking danger are in abundance. The consequences of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill will resonate for a long time. Already, the economic […]

Economy & Business

New Atlanticist

Jun 8, 2010

Turning Russia into a Euro-Atlantic Stakeholder

By Nikolas Gvosdev

At the Naval War College’s 2010 Current Strategy Forum, Georgetown professor and CFR fellow Charles A. Kupchan spoke on the subject on transforming former adversaries into future partners and described Russia as "the prize." Can we turn Moscow into a stakeholder in the architecture of the Euro-Atlantic world without simultaneously frightening allies in "New Europe" […]

New Atlanticist

Jun 8, 2010

Georgia Drifts Away from the West

By Matthew Czekaj

The West is losing Georgia, and the West has only itself to blame. Since the April 2008 NATO Summit in Bucharest, at which the Alliance declared that Georgia (and Ukraine) would become a member, Europe and the United States have done almost nothing to more fully integrate the Caucasian country into the transatlantic community. The […]

European Union
International Organizations

New Atlanticist

Jun 7, 2010

NSS Review: Upholding the Transatlantic Relationship

By Andras Simonyi

The Obama administration’s new National Security Strategy, released last week, has global consequence, reflecting the responsibility of the United States to provide leadership to the free world. It reflects a shift in the mindset of America’s thinking about the world and itself.

New Atlanticist

Jun 7, 2010

An Indian Perspective on NATO’s Global Role

By Jason Harmala

K. Subrahmanyam, one of India’s leading strategic analysts and journalists, appears in the latest installment of Atlantic Council senior fellow Sarwar Kashmeri’s New Atlanticist Podcast Series to discuss India’s perception of NATO, as well as the possibility of India participating in a greater global security role with NATO.

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