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
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.

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

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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New Atlanticist

Aug 6, 2009

Diplomacy is Not a Doctrine

By Robert Manning

It is a reminder of how far discourse on foreign policy had been distorted that former Bush speechwriter and now-Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson has declared the basic act of diplomacy the “Obama Doctrine.”

New Atlanticist

Aug 6, 2009

Mixed U.S. Reaction to Iran

By Brendan Boundy

Yesterday Mahmoud Ahmadinejad formally began his second term as President of the Islamic Republic of Iran. But for Ahmadinejad, what should be a celebratory moment of transition now serves as yet another reminder of the turmoil that engulfed Iran following the disputed June 12 elections.

Iran United States and Canada

New Atlanticist

Aug 5, 2009

Eurasia Gas Paradox

By Boyko Nitzov

The Eurasia gas market is a paradox: declining consumer demand and ample reserves live side-by-side with potential gas shortages. Already hit hard in early 2009, consumers in a good dozen EU countries may be up for another cold spell this coming winter.

Energy & Environment

New Atlanticist

Aug 5, 2009

Obama’s Options in the Middle East Peace Process

By Harlan Ullman

The visits last week to the Middle East by national security adviser James L. Jones and special envoy George Mitchell raise the question of the Obama administration’s aims and expectations in bringing a greater measure of peace and stability to a conflict that so far has defied solution.

New Atlanticist

Aug 5, 2009

Biden Defines Europe Policy

By Damon Wilson

More than any other official, Vice President Biden has helped define the Obama administration approach to Europe. While the President has made an unprecedented three trips to Europe during his first six months in office (including heavy lifts in Turkey and Russia), his visits were built around obligatory summits more often focused on global issues […]

New Atlanticist

Aug 4, 2009

The Next Stage in U.S.-China Relations

By Banning Garrett

The China-U.S. relationship for the 21st Century is being forged in a new, strategically interdependent world—a globalized world no longer characterized by the zero-sum strategic competition among the major powers that dominated the Cold War and preceding eras. The United States and China are not strategic competitors but rather face common strategic challenges that can […]

China

New Atlanticist

Aug 4, 2009

Rasmussen: Afghanistan NATO’s Top Priority

By James Joyner

New NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen has wasted no time in signaling that the war in Afghanistan is the Alliance’s top priority, holding a teleconference on the conflict, reorganizing the mission’s command structure and calling for more EU help in his first days on the job.

Afghanistan NATO

New Atlanticist

Aug 4, 2009

Biden Was Right: Russia No Longer a Great Power

By David Smith

As U.S. Vice President Joe Biden returned to Washington from his foray to Ukraine and Georgia, the first copies of a Wall Street Journal article that would plunge him into political controversy rolled off the presses.

The Caucasus Ukraine

New Atlanticist

Aug 3, 2009

Kashmir Self-Determination Revisited

By Luv Puri

On 5 May 1946, People’s Age, a communist newspaper, noted in a commentary that granting the right to complete self-determination to all the nationalities living in India would eliminate the possibility of a constitutional solution along communal lines. The right, it continued, could be conceded after a territorial re-division of provinces, done on a scientific […]

New Atlanticist

Aug 3, 2009

Faulty Reset on START

By David Smith

When U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a Joint Understanding on July 6 on a treaty to follow the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), this first press of Obama’s reset button launched U.S. negotiators into a time warp to circa 1969 Cold War-style negotiations against an artificial deadline. The result […]

Russia

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