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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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

Oct 22, 2009

Iranian Regime Under Three-Front Attack

By Jonathan Paris

The terrorist attacks on October 18 killing dozens of Revolutionary Guardsmen, including seven top commanders, and several tribal leaders in Southeastern Iran are the latest episode of a three-fold challenge to the Regime. These attacks were followed two days later by the shooting of two Iranian police officers in Iranshahr in the same Sistan-Baluchistan province. […]

New Atlanticist

Oct 21, 2009

Give Pakistan Modern Military Tools

By Shuja Nawaz

The battle for Pakistan has finally started in earnest along the northwest frontier. After months of warning of an impending attack, the Pakistani military moved into South Waziristan this weekend to stamp out the Pakistani Taliban (TTP), which is allied with al Qaeda and allows the terrorist group to operate from the region. The Army […]

Pakistan

New Atlanticist

Oct 21, 2009

Russian Economy and the Balance of Power

By Nikolas Gvosdev

In assessing the balance of power between Russia and the West throughout the Eurasian space, many analysts have focused on political decisions. Does the Obama administration’s decision to cancel the deployment of a missile-defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic leave pro-American governments in the region anxious to be integrated into the Euro-Atlantic community […]

Russia

New Atlanticist

Oct 21, 2009

Beware False Choices

By Harlan Ullman

In politics, catchy phrases often become sound bites. Sound bites become slogans that are transformed into partisan rallying points irrespective of logic or veracity. In this process, highly complex issues are invariably defined in terms of simplistic and misleading false choices.

New Atlanticist

Oct 20, 2009

Peter Galbraith Afghanistan Elections Interview

By James Joyner

Sarwar Kashmeri, a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s International Security Program, has inaugurated the New Atlanticist Podcast series with an interview with Ambassador Peter Galbraith on the Afghanistan election crisis.

New Atlanticist

Oct 20, 2009

Pakistan’s Government, Not Military, Must Fight Taliban

By Shuja Nawaz

Rising violence, targeted and random, has become a fact of life in Pakistan today. It threatens the country’s political and economic future—and there still does not appear to be a strategy to stop it.

Pakistan

New Atlanticist

Oct 20, 2009

Beyond Piracy: Maritime Security and Safety Challenges

By Derek Reveron

For the last year, piracy in East Africa has captured the world’s attention, as evidenced by the more than a dozen countries’ warships deployed to the Gulf of Aden and the Somali basin. This includes unprecedented out-of-area naval deployments for the European Union, NATO, China, India, Japan, and South Korea. In spite of this, naval […]

East Africa Somalia

New Atlanticist

Oct 19, 2009

Afghanistan Election: Now What?

By James Joyner

A United Nations panel has ordered a run-off in Afghanistan’s presidential election, ruling that Hamid Karzai got less than fifty percent of the legitimate ballots cast and that nearly a third of the votes previously counted were fraudulent. It remains to be seen how Karzai and the West will respond.\

Afghanistan

New Atlanticist

Oct 19, 2009

Pakistan’s Nukes Threatened by Taliban Resurgence

By Arnaud de Borchgrave

A Talib is a male student who is attending or who has graduated from a madrassa and can recite the Koran in Arabic by heart. To learn Arabic and use the language of the prophet to recite in rhythmic tones the entire Koran’s 114 chapters and 6,236 verses takes about 10 years. By the time […]

New Atlanticist

Oct 16, 2009

Soft Power is Dead, Long Live Soft Power

By Derek Reveron

Just three weeks ago, the International Olympics Committee signaled that a new era in international affairs had finally begun. By eliminating Chicago a personal appeal by President Obama, the IOC subtly told the United States that its unipolar moment was over. Instead, future international affairs will be dominated by different regional power centers-the European Union, […]

United States and Canada

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