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

Stay updated

Explore our unique analysis

Fast Thinking

When major global news breaks, the Atlantic Council’s experts have you covered—delivering their sharpest rapid insight and forward-looking analysis direct to your inbox.

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.

Markup

Our experts decipher and annotate major speeches and policy documents to break down big ideas and lay them out in plain language.

New Atlanticist

May 17, 2010

Renewing the International Order

By Kurt Volker

After eight months of reflection, the senior Group of Experts appointed by NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, and led by former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, issues its report today. On this basis, the secretary general will prepare a new Strategic Concept for Allies to approve at a summit in Lisbon this November. […]

New Atlanticist

May 17, 2010

Shahzad’s Pashtun Connection

By Don Snow

Why Faisal Shahzad, the Times Square attempted bomber, decided to mount the terrorist attack against his adopted country has been the subject of a great deal of speculation in the two weeks since it occurred. Most of the analysis has not been very helpful, filled with the kinds of platitudes that run through the terrorism […]

New Atlanticist

May 14, 2010

Britain’s Speedy Transitions

By James Joyner

In American presidential elections, held on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November, the new president is sworn in at noon on January 20 and he has his full team in place in, oh, two years. In the UK, the transition customarily takes place quite literally overnight and, when it takes a whole week […]

United Kingdom

New Atlanticist

May 14, 2010

Goodbye to Europe?

By James Joyner

"It is more than a little ironic that NATO has committed itself to defining a new strategic concept at precisely the moment the transatlantic relationship counts for less than at any time since the 1930s." So begins an FT op-ed by CFR president Richard Haass.

European Union International Organizations

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

Share

Issue briefs and reports