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.

Germany Will Consent to Rescue Greece. Eventually.

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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New Atlanticist

Mar 23, 2010

Germany Will Consent to Rescue Greece. Eventually.

By James Joyner

Germany continues to be the last holdout on a bailout for Greece. But the Merkel government is quietly setting up a scenario under which a deal could be struck. A Spiegel feature by Markus Feldenkirchen, Christian Reiermann, Michael Sauga and Hans-Jürgen Schlamp makes clear that there is serious conflict over this issue at the very […]

United Kingdom

New Atlanticist

Mar 23, 2010

Caspian Security Gambit

By Borut Grgic

The international diplomacy aimed at thwarting Iran’s nuclear program has produced no concrete results. Iran’s leaders, in particular President Ahmadinejad, are set on going nuclear, and doing it soon.

New Atlanticist

Mar 22, 2010

Pakistan’s About Face

By Arnaud de Borchgrave

Pakistan’s decades-long Afghan policy has undergone a radical change. Strategically, Afghanistan is no longer considered part of Pakistan’s "western defense in depth" should India attack Pakistan from the east. The country’s defense doctrine also included covert assistance for the Taliban insurgency. The game changer has been a steady rapprochement between the U.S. and Pakistani defense […]

New Atlanticist

Mar 22, 2010

Ukraine: A Country of People Without Nationality

By Larysa Masenko

Foreign observers have a hard time understanding how the Ukrainian community managed to transfer power to the man whose presidential ambitions five years ago gave rise to a powerful civic movement. Instead, for many of us, above all those who stood in the Maidan back in 2004, the choice the country has made is not […]

Ukraine

New Atlanticist

Mar 19, 2010

Security Assistance is a Two-Way Street

By Derek Reveron

On any given day, U.S. military forces are conducting joint naval patrols, training and equipping partners’ military forces, and providing humanitarian assistance. Non-warfighting programs like these increasingly constitute the main line of efforts for US military commands.

New Atlanticist

Mar 19, 2010

The Latest Israeli Settlement Flap

By Don Snow

The Netanyahou government is at it again, this time in a more spectacular display of ham-handedness and arrogance than usual.

New Atlanticist

Mar 18, 2010

Changing Rules of Warfare

By Derek Reveron

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen recently gave a speech in Kansas where he outlined a vision of warfare for the current era. Reflecting on nine years of continuous warfare in Central Asia and twenty years military involvement in Iraq, he proposed three rules that challenge traditional notions of using the […]

New Atlanticist

Mar 17, 2010

What Conclusions Should We Be Drawing from Sunday’s Regional Elections in Russia?

By Nikolas Gvosdev

One of the things that struck me in looking at the results was the similarities to Mexico’s elections back in the day when the Institutionalized Revolutionary Party (PRI) held sway.

New Atlanticist

Mar 17, 2010

Is the United States a Serious Nation?

By Harlan Ullman

To many, THE issue confronting the United States is a government that is dysfunctional and even badly broken. To others, the immense and swelling fiscal debt and deficits must redressed before the nation slips into bankruptcy. Still others argue that values are the centerpiece of America and unless differences over guns, gays, gestation periods and […]

New Atlanticist

Mar 16, 2010

NATO Transformation on the Cheap

By James Joyner

General Stéphane Abrial, Commander Allied Command Transformation (ACT), declared that, "With defense budgets under growing competition from other lines of public expenditure it is therefore imperative that we are able to assure our publics that we are wasting nothing, that we have not spared ourselves any necessary reform and ask for nothing that is not […]

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