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.

Global Threat Analysis: 20 Years after the Fall of the Wall

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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Global Threat Analysis: 20 Years after the Fall of the Wall

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

Global Threat Analysis: 20 Years after the Fall of the Wall

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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Content

New Atlanticist

Nov 12, 2009

Global Threat Analysis: 20 Years after the Fall of the Wall

By Barry McCaffrey

General Barry McCaffrey assesses the dangers that face us today – from the immediate threats posed by terrorist factions to the long-term challenges of climate change.

Germany

New Atlanticist

Nov 11, 2009

Afghanistan: Implementation Trumps Planning

By Harlan Ullman

Presumably, the Obama administration will soon decide on its strategy and accompanying plan for Afghanistan and the region. No matter what it does, there are three certainties. First, Obama’s choices range from bad to worse. Second, the plan will be savaged by critics of both the left and right. Third, implementation and not troop numbers, […]

New Atlanticist

Nov 11, 2009

Climate and Energy the Dominant Challenges of 21st Century

By Wald Goodman Catarious

As 2009 marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, it also marks the beginning of a new era of challenges posed by threats that were little recognized and less appreciated those 20 short years ago: climate change and energy security.

New Atlanticist

Nov 11, 2009

Hasan: Tens of Thousands Like Him in West

By Arnaud de Borchgrave

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan is the proverbial canary in the mine. Gunning down 12 soldiers and one civilian, and wounding 31 was not a random act of violence by an army psychiatrist who was slated to deploy to Afghanistan, an evil war in his mind, where American infidels are killing good Muslims. As the Virginia-born […]

New Atlanticist

Nov 10, 2009

Helmut Kohl on the Fall of the Wall and German Reunification

By Helmut Kohl

2009 is a special year for anniversaries. We celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989. Inextricably linked to this, we also celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany on May 23, 1949, and of NATO on April 4, 1949.

Germany

New Atlanticist

Nov 10, 2009

Germany Should Support Nabucco

By Alexandros Petersen

Rügen is best known as a popular German tourist destination. But now the Baltic Sea island has taken on a new role as staging point for an energy project that is as ambitious as it is controversial: the Nord Stream gas pipeline from Russia to Germany.

Energy & Environment European Union

New Atlanticist

Nov 10, 2009

1989’s False Promise

By Kenneth Weisbrode

Twenty years is not a very long time in history but the fall of the Berlin Wall already seems like another era. The euphoria, confidence and excitement that accompanied that event were overtaken in short order by cynicism, fear and doubt resulting, according to some quarters at least, from American triumphalism. Despite the new leaf […]

New Atlanticist

Nov 9, 2009

Critical Decision Point in Afghanistan

By Don Snow

Although supporters of the Afghan War (including the Obama administration) hate the comparison, the outcome of the recent runoff election fiasco in Afghanistan suggests a parallel with the American experience in Vietnam.

Afghanistan

New Atlanticist

Nov 9, 2009

Jim Jones on the National Security Climate

By Frederick Kempe

Atlantic Council president and CEO Frederick Kempe recently interviewed James L. Jones , National Security Advisor to President Obama and former Chairman of the Atlantic Council Board of Directors.

New Atlanticist

Nov 6, 2009

America’s New Partnership with Central Europe

By Jeffrey Lightfoot

In his remarks in Bucharest, the U.S. Vice President Biden celebrated the democratic and economic development of Central and Eastern Europe since the fall of communism twenty years ago.

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