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.

UK Feels Backlash from BP Oil Spill: The View from Europe

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 11, 2010

UK Feels Backlash from BP Oil Spill: The View from Europe

By Scott Bleiweis

President Obama’s top energy advisor has already termed the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico the worst environmental disaster in American history, and it’s far from over. The inability to stop the gushing flow has created plenty of vitriol and condemnation in the US toward the federal government and rig operator BP.

United Kingdom

New Atlanticist

Jun 11, 2010

NATO a Permanent Alliance: Surviving Cold War’s End

By Stanley Sloan

The Soviet threat provided NATO’s main rationale and explanation until the Warsaw Pact disbanded and the Soviet Union disintegrated. What is it about the transatlantic bargain that has ensured its survival beyond its founding raison d’être? In 1989, with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the the allies were left to assert in the early […]

New Atlanticist

Jun 10, 2010

Defending the Afghanistan Experts

By James Joyner

Some anonymous attendees of Central Command’s Af-Pak conference have penned highly critical blog posts, which have appeared at two pre-eminent national security blogs, Christian Bleuer’s Ghosts of Alexander and Andrew Exum’s Abu Muqawama.

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" […]

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