Insights and impact

About the Council

The Atlantic Council promotes constructive leadership and engagement in international affairs based on the Atlantic Community’s central role in meeting global challenges. The Council provides an essential forum for navigating the dramatic economic and political changes defining the twenty-first century by informing and galvanizing its uniquely influential network of global leaders. Through the papers we write, the ideas we generate, and the communities we build, the Council shapes policy choices and strategies to create a more secure and prosperous world.

Read our annual report
Learn more

Featured content

NATO 20/2020

Twenty bold ideas to reimagine the Alliance after the 2020 US election

More than two decades after NATO’s inspired decision to invite former adversaries to join its ranks, the Alliance is in need of equally captivating ideas. The essays in this volume are intended to push the Alliance to think boldly and creatively in the service of recapturing the public’s imagination.

Read our provocative essays on the future of NATO

Download PDF
Read the essays
sign up for more

Explore the podcast series

NATO 20/2020 Podcast

NATO 20/2020 is a weekly podcast that explores 20 bold ideas to push NATO to be more visionary, more capable, and more self-evidently valuable to the security of more people.

Making a difference

Learn more about the Atlantic Council’s insights & impact through these stories of how our regional and thematic programs are making a difference not only in shaping how we view global issues but also in shaping their outcome.

Artwork by Peter Kuper

In the News

Dec 17, 2020

The Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center partners with LEADERS Magazine to dedicate an entire issue to resilience

For its Fall/Winter issue of 2020, LEADERS Magazine, asked the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center to produce an issue dedicated to resilience. The Resilience Issue assembles a broad range of global thought leaders and experts who are currently tackling the challenges and crises facing the world from different perspectives.

Insights & Impact

Mar 3, 2020

Peering Around the Corner: The Geopolitics of Coronavirus

By Atlantic Council

On February 11, 2020 the DFRLab hosted "Peering Around the Corner: The Geopolitics of Coronavirus," a timely series of panels on the potential geopolitical and economic consequences of Coronavirus, and how misinformation about the crisis may influence its impact.

China Disinformation

Program Impact Story

Feb 6, 2020

US energy priorities abroad: A conversation with US Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette

By Global Energy Center

On Friday, February 7, 2020, the Atlantic Council hosted newly appointed US Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette for a public address and moderated discussion about US government energy priorities abroad.

view all Program impact stories

Latest commentary and analysis

Econographics

Jun 19, 2026

Central banks can’t afford to keep missing their inflation targets

By Jack Muldoon

While the Iran war explains the sudden rise in inflation, relying on this excuse obscures that there is potentially a long-term problem central banks will need to confront as they manage the long tail of this crisis.

Economy & Business Macroeconomics

UkraineAlert

Jun 18, 2026

Putin’s obsession with ‘denazifying’ Ukraine makes peace impossible

By Peter Dickinson

Putin’s obsession with “denazifying” Ukraine makes a mockery of efforts to portray the Russian invasion as a mere land grab and helps explain why there has been no meaningful progress toward peace despite more than a year of US-led efforts, writes Peter Dickinson.

Conflict Disinformation

Podcast

Jun 18, 2026

“Shoot everybody”: US contractors in San Diego court

By Alia Brahimi

In Season 2, Episode 16 of the Guns for Hire podcast, host Alia Brahimi is joined by Daniel McLaughlin, an international lawyer and Legal Director of the Centre for Justice and Accountability (CJA), a California-based legal nonprofit working on behalf of victims of torture and other atrocity crimes. Daniel and CJA are leading a civil suit in San Diego against a Delaware-registered PMC, Spear Operations Group, for war crimes in Yemen. They represent the Yemeni parliamentarian Anssaf Ali Mayo, who was one of the targets of an alleged hit-squad in Yemen. Daniel talks us through the facts of the case, how it ended up in a California courtroom ten years later, and which US and international laws were ostensibly broken by the PMC. He also argues forcefully that the US government has a duty to regulate how former members of its military use their training and know-how.

Middle East Rule of Law
View all commentary & analysis

Latest in-depth research and reports

Issue Brief

Jun 18, 2026

The case for a US Northeast Asia Command

By Christopher Lee, Ben Blane, and Markus Garlauskas

To maximize its deterrent and warfighting effectiveness in the Indo-Pacific region, the United States must reform its military command-and-control structure in Northeast Asia.

Arms Control East Asia

Report

Jun 16, 2026

Financing the end of the digital divide

By Kenton Thibaut, Jochai Ben-Avie

Digital connectivity has become a strategic geopolitical contest shaping the future of the global internet. This report examines China’s global digital infrastructure investments and the ways that the United States and its allies can leverage blended finance, partnerships, and policy to close the digital divide while offering a credible alternative to China’s expanding digital influence.

China Digital Policy

Issue Brief

Jun 15, 2026

Updating the Democratic Transition Framework to chart a way forward in Venezuela

By Geoff Ramsey

To seize the opportunity for a democratic transition in Venezuela in the wake of Nicolás Maduro's January capture, the United States should update a power-sharing framework proposed in 2020 to serve as a road map for the restoration of Venezuela’s democratic institutions.

Americas Democratic Transitions
View all In-depth Research & reports

Content

In the News

Jul 11, 2023

Karatnycky in Foreign Policy: The long, destructive shadow of Obama’s Russia doctrine

By Atlantic Council

Eastern Europe National Security

In the News

Jul 11, 2023

Grady Wilson quoted in NRC (Dutch) on balancing in Turkish foreign policy
NATO Politics & Diplomacy

In the News

Jul 11, 2023

Wieslander interviewed on Radio Sweden

Podcast Gräns When Turkey makes demands and delays Sweden’s membership, there is a risk that NATO appears weak and that the principle of open doors is challenged. Sveriges Radio speaks to Anna Wieslander, Director for Northern Europe at the Atlantic Council. “The process has taken longer than I expected”, she says.

NATO Northern Europe

In the News

Jul 11, 2023

Wieslander quoted in Financial Times

Sweden poised to strengthen Nato’s northern defences Membership of alliance marks historic shift for non-aligned country, precipitated by Russia’s war against Ukraine. Swedish membership will help Nato bolster its defence of the entire Nordic and Baltic regions and reinforce its presence in the Arctic. Its forces, logistics, airspace and maritime areas can now be fully […]

NATO Northern Europe

In the News

Jul 11, 2023

Wieslander quoted in TIME

Why Sweden’s Path to NATO Membership Has Been So Rocky “Why is Sweden not already a NATO member?” “‘Sweden had to withdraw from Northern Europe’s power politics around 1809. We got a new French king, Bernadotte, and we withdrew because we were too weakened,’ Anna Wieslander, director for Northern Europe at the Atlantic Council, tells […]

NATO Northern Europe

In the News

Jul 11, 2023

Rich Outzen joins CNN International to discuss Erdogan’s approval of Sweden’s NATO membership
Europe & Eurasia NATO

In the News

Jul 11, 2023

Rich Outzen joins TRT World to discuss Erdogan’s approval of Sweden’s NATO membership
Europe & Eurasia NATO

In the News

Jul 11, 2023

Wieslander interviewed on Expressen TV

Anna Wieslander is at the NATO summit in Vilnius, where Turkey yesterday night said yes to Sweden joining Nato. Anna Wieslander, director for Northern Europe states: “Turkey’s EU demands were introduced in the last minute.” “It was about bringing everything to an end”, she says.

NATO Northern Europe

In the News

Jul 11, 2023

Wieslander on BBC World Service

Turkey’s president agrees to back Sweden’s request to join the western military defence alliance NATO – but what will it mean when Sweden becomes part of the alliance? Anna Wieslander spoke with BBC’s World Service about the Turkey-Swedish deal and a possible Ukraine membership. Anna Wieslander can be heard at minute 28:30.

NATO Northern Europe

In the News

Jul 10, 2023

Binnendijk, Kramer and Skaluba featured in Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, on Ukraine’s path to NATO

By Hans Binnendijk, Franklin D. Kramer, Christopher Skaluba

On July 10, Transatlantic Security Initiative director Chris Skaluba and distinguished fellows Hans Binnendijk and Franklin D. Kramer were mentioned in Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, in which they discussed the path for Ukraine to join NATO and their recent article in the New Atlanticist (text in Polish). 

Defense Policy Europe & Eurasia
Load More