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.

Assessing the Thwarted Christmas Attack

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.

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Assessing the Thwarted Christmas Attack

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

Assessing the Thwarted Christmas Attack

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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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.

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Content

New Atlanticist

Jan 5, 2010

Assessing the Thwarted Christmas Attack

By Bernard Finel

The details of the thwarted attack on Northwest 253 on Christmas are still emerging.  Nevertheless, there are several issues worth exploring even as investigations continue.  Many commentators seem to feel that this event requires a major rethinking of our approach to counter-terrorism. 

New Atlanticist

Jan 5, 2010

Time to Retire the Russia Reset Button

By Nikolas Gvosdev

In 2010, one New Year’s resolution for the Obama administration would be to retire the entire “Russia reset” meme. From its ill-omened launch with the presentation of a button by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov – inscribed in Latin (not Cyrillic) letters with a Russian word that implies a party […]

Russia

New Atlanticist

Jan 5, 2010

Progress on the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict

By Alexandros Petersen

Alexandros Petersen, a nonresident senior fellow at the Council’s Dinu Patriciu Eurasia Center, was interviewed by Azerbaijan’s Today.az on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

New Atlanticist

Jan 4, 2010

Mark Mardell Interview: Part II

By James Joyner

Sarwar Kashmeri, a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s International Security Program, continues his interview with Mark Mardell, North America editor of the BBC, for the New Atlanticist Podcast Series.  In this second installment, Mardell discussed relations between NATO allies.

New Atlanticist

Jan 4, 2010

Unholy War in Cyberspace

By Arnaud de Borchgrave

For America’s 16 intelligence agencies, employing some 100,000 spies and analysts with a budget of $50 billion, it is almost mission impossible to figure out what terrorists and would-be terrorists are up to in cyberspace.

New Atlanticist

Jan 4, 2010

Presidential Mulligans

By Harlan Ullman

In golf, a mulligan is a “do-over” or second chance. An errant shot flies into a hazard or dribbles off the tee. The opponent graciously says “take a mulligan.” However, as far as golf etiquette is concerned, a mulligan must be played no matter where it lies.

New Atlanticist

Dec 24, 2009

Russia and Georgia to Reopen Border Crossing

By James Joyner

Georgia and Russia have agreed to re-open a key artery closed since 2006, another sign that Moscow would like to repair relations with its former satellite.

Russia The Caucasus

New Atlanticist

Dec 23, 2009

Surreal Pakistan

By Arnaud de Borchgrave

In a satirical piece on Pakistan’s “New Media Dictionary,” Nadeem Paracha described “Conspiracy Theory” as “A theory that is not a theory at all but a hard fact on Pakistan’s TV channels,” where anything goes and where 90 percent of Pakistanis get their news.

New Atlanticist

Dec 23, 2009

Pakistani Thermidor?

By Harlan Ullman

Winston Churchill characterized Soviet Russia in terms of riddles and enigmas. Pakistan today can be characterized as seemingly implacable contradictions and collisions between immovable objects and immutable forces — potentially creating the “mother of all quagmires.”

New Atlanticist

Dec 22, 2009

Iranian Westernization a Western Pipe Dream

By Don Snow

The ability of Americans to believe that Iran secretly wants to be just like us but is repressed by unrepresentative political candidates never ceases to amaze me. The dynamic is at work once again surrounding the funueral of “dissident” Grand Ayatollah Mir Hussein Montazeri.

Iran
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