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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Experts React

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 2, 2010

Democratic Change It’s Not

By Borut Grgic

There are basically two schools of thought when it comes to explaining what happened in Kyrgyzstan in April. Proponents of the democracy school will argue that what we witnessed was a legitimate uprising against an unjust and oppressive regime set up by President Kurmanbek Bakiyev. The other school, the realists, will explain the April events […]

New Atlanticist

Jun 2, 2010

Russia: A NATO Member?

By Donald Bandler and Jakub Kulhanek

Apart from a now customary display of Russia’s military might, the recent commemoration of the victory over Nazi Germany in Moscow witnessed a strange spectacle of NATO troops marching on Red Square. The presence of its erstwhile enemy has stirred controversy in Russia.

New Atlanticist

Jun 2, 2010

A European State That Has Friendly Ties With Russia

By Adrian Karatnycky

Is Ukraine drifting toward Russia and away from Europe? Several recent developments suggest it may be. Although the pendulum has swung toward Moscow, a case can be made that a foreign policy balance will be struck in the coming months.

Russia Ukraine

New Atlanticist

Jun 1, 2010

NSS Review: Vision and Questions

By Ioan Mircea Pascu

The Obama administration’s National Security Strategy is even more important because it comes at a crucial time: the international system is heavily affected by economic and financial crisis, conflict, disorder and successive natural disasters.

New Atlanticist

Jun 1, 2010

Pakistani Paradoxes

By Harlan Ullman

Pakistan has become the center of a vortex whose swirling and powerful forces threaten to disrupt far more than that country and the South Asian region.

New Atlanticist

Jun 1, 2010

NSS Review: How Will It Be Managed?

By Laura Hall

The Obama National Security Strategy was released on May 27. Such a broad document inevitably includes vague words like “engage” and “ensure” and “seek to,” that describe without defining.

New Atlanticist

May 28, 2010

Obama’s National Security Strategy Sleight-of-Hand

By James Joyner

George Kennan famously defined national security as "the continued ability of this country to pursue its internal life without serious interference." The Obama Administration, with the release of its National Security Strategy, has re-defined it beyond all meaning.

New Atlanticist

May 28, 2010

Will China Rule the World?

By Robert Manning

Have the past two centuries of a Western defined and dominated world order — the norms, rules and ways of thinking about the world — the very concept of modernity — been a historical anomaly?

New Atlanticist

May 28, 2010

Ukraine: Fear and Loathing on the Post-Campaign Trail

By Adrian Karatnycky

Reading the Kyiv Post and many of Ukraine’s other newsweeklies, one gets the impression that a measure of hysteria has seized normally sober-minded and serious analysts. Respected analysts speak in dire terms of a wholesale sellout of Ukraine to Russia and of the consolidation of dictatorship.

Ukraine

New Atlanticist

May 27, 2010

National Security Strategy Instant Reactions

By James Joyner

Yesterday, Derek Reveron gave us a National Security Strategy preview. Today, the 52-page document is being unveiled to mixed reviews. The Obama administration is trying to make a clear break with its predecessor’s policy, in both tone and substance, while redefining "national security" to include issues that have traditionally been thought of as purely matters […]

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