issue spotlight

Europe in crisis

War in Ukraine

Experts from across the Atlantic Council are assessing the consequences of Russia’s February 2022 invasion, including what it means for Ukraine’s sovereignty, Europe’s security, and the United States’ leadership.

More on the war
View UkraineAlert

Georgia Crisis Reverberates to Latin America

New Atlanticist
Dec 4, 2024

A winning strategy to end Russia’s war against Ukraine

More than a dozen experts from the United States and Europe share their recommendations to the incoming Trump administration about how best to end Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Read More

Georgia Crisis Reverberates to Latin America

Russia Tomorrow
Jan 8, 2025

Sanctioned kleptocracy: How Putin’s kremligarchs have survived the war—and even prospered

By
Ilya Zaslavskiy

The latest report in the Atlantic Council’s Russia Tomorrow series explores how Russia’s kleptocratic networks infiltrated the West and measures the US and Europe can take to combat the malign influence of Russian kleptocracy around the globe.

Corruption
Economic Sanctions

Georgia Crisis Reverberates to Latin America

UkraineAlert
Jan 14, 2025

No peace without security: Ukraine needs guarantees against new Russian invasion

By
Peter Dickinson

Ukraine is ready to make territorial concessions but insists that any peace deal must include credible long-term security guarantees to prevent a new Russian invasion, writes Peter Dickinson.

Conflict
European Union

Stay updated

COMMENTARY & ANALYSIS

The Power Vertical

The Power Vertical is a blog and podcast for Russia wonks and Kremlin watchers by Brian Whitmore. It covers emerging and developing trends in Russian politics, shining a spotlight on the high-stakes power struggles, machinations, and clashing interests that shape Kremlin policy today.

learn more

Host and Eurasia Center Senior Fellow Brian Whitmore invites guest experts to deliver their insights and analysis in this weekly podcast. The Atlantic Council and the Charles T. McDowell Center for Global Studies at the University of Texas at Arlington co-sponsor this production.

The Russia Tomorrow series

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 challenged much of the common Western understanding of Russia. How can the world better understand Russia? What are the steps forward for Western policy? The Eurasia Center’s new “Russia Tomorrow” series seeks to reevaluate conceptions of Russia today and better prepare for its future tomorrow.

Read More

Russia Tomorrow

Russia Tomorrow: Five scenarios for Russia’s future

by Casey Michel

A new Atlantic Council report explores five paths that Russia future might take in its future. What forces will shape Russia’s future?

recent events

Online Event
Wed, July 16, 2025 • 10:00 am ET

Digital occupation: Inside Russia’s Telegram battle in Ukraine

Conflict
Disinformation
Europe & Eurasia
Russia

Online Event
Mon, July 14, 2025 • 2:00 pm ET

Report launch: Russia’s future rulers

Corruption
Europe & Eurasia
Politics & Diplomacy
Populism

Load More

The Eurasia Center’s mission is to enhance transatlantic cooperation in promoting stability, democratic values and prosperity in Eurasia, from Eastern Europe and Turkey in the West to the Caucasus, Russia and Central Asia in the East.

Learn more

Content

New Atlanticist

Sep 24, 2008

Georgia Crisis Reverberates to Latin America

By Derek Reveron

Sitting in Bogota, I didn’t expect to see Colombian television coverage of the four-ship Russian squadron departing Severmorsk. After all, Colombia is very much focused on consolidating its recent gains against the narcoterrorist group FARC. There is now tremendous optimism in Colombia with a series of successes that began with a spring operation that killed […]

Latin America Russia

New Atlanticist

Sep 22, 2008

Wake Up, Gassiev is Calling!

By David Smith

In the predawn hours of August 7, Russia invaded Georgia.  Gassiev, a border guard of the separatist regime in the Georgian territory of South Ossetia, was at the southern end of the Roki Tunnel that leads from Russia.  At 3:52 a.m., he used his mobile telephone to tell his supervisor: “The armor and people . […]

NATO Russia

New Atlanticist

Sep 22, 2008

Russia Back in the Game: It’s the West’s Move

By Ioan Mircea Pascu

With its invasion of Georgia, Russia demonstrated the determination to “come back into the game” in style. Regenerated through the surge of energy prices, Russia’s leaders want to make up their losses from the 1990s and get payback for the accompanying humiliation. Her aggressive policies, heralded by the political use of the energy weapon starting […]

European Union International Organizations

New Atlanticist

Sep 22, 2008

NATO’s Tunnel Vision: Seeing Beyond Russia

By Nikolas Gvosdev

Perusing the media reports after the meeting of NATO defense ministers in London, I was most struck by what did not appear. For instance, no apparent discussion about what is a growing threat to the economic security of the entire Euro-Atlantic world—the increasing ability of both “rogue states” and non-state actors (warlords, rebels and terrorist […]

NATO Russia

New Atlanticist

Sep 16, 2008

Debate: Is Russia Rational?

By James Joyner

A question that has been raised repeatedly, both explicitly and implicitly, since Russia’s invasion of Georgia is the degree to which Vladimir Putin and Dmitri Medvedev are rational actors.  Surely, many argue, it makes no sense for Russia to risk isolating itself from the West to make a point?

Russia

New Atlanticist

Sep 16, 2008

Russia a Rational Actor? Nyet!

By Robert Manning

After all the huffing and puffing about what civilizations don’t do in the 21st century (does Abu Ghraib ring a bell?) on the one side, and finger-wagging about spheres of influence on the other, what does the Georgia tragedy add up to? Is cooperation with Russia fading beneath a new Cold War? Is Russia facing […]

Russia

New Atlanticist

Sep 16, 2008

Russia a Rational Actor? Da!

By Christopher Harness

The world sat startled when Russia heavy-handedly violated the sovereignty of Georgia.  It is currently aggravated at Russian reluctance to promptly leave.  In the aftermath, everyone is hurriedly analyzing, grasping for reasons why Russia felt the need to go all in.

Russia

New Atlanticist

Sep 15, 2008

Cold War II

By James Joyner

The dramatic escalation in tensions between NATO and Russia that followed the West’s recognition of Kosovo’s independence from Serbia and, especially, Russia’s invasion of Georgia, have many analysts fearing a return to the bad old days of the Cold War.   Jim Townsend, the Atlantic Council’s vice president for international security programs, declared to a C-SPAN […]

NATO Russia

New Atlanticist

Sep 11, 2008

Russia’s Godfathers

By Fran Burwell

Is French President Nicolas Sarkozy negotiating with Don Corleone? Sarkozy, leading the European Union effort to secure a Russian withdrawal from Georgia, has returned from Moscow with another agreement. This time, Russian troops are to withdraw from the so-called “buffer zone” after the placement of 200 EU monitors in the regions outside South Ossetia and […]

European Union International Organizations

New Atlanticist

Sep 10, 2008

Will the Near Abroad Go Nuclear?

By Alexander Motyl

As Europe redefines its security interests vis-à-vis Russia in the aftermath of Vladimir Putin’s war against Georgia, both sides have reverted to the kind of geopolitical thinking that, while reasonably accurate during the Cold War, is devoid of reality today.

Europe & Eurasia Russia
Load More

Experts

Fellow

Shawn Creamer

Nonresident Senior Fellow

GeoStrategy Initiative Indo-Pacific Security Initiative

Security & Defense East Asia

Fellow

William B. Taylor

Distinguished Fellow

Eurasia Center

English Europe & Eurasia

Fellow

Joanna Siekiera

Nonresident Fellow

Indo-Pacific Security Initiative Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

Rule of Law Polish

Fellow

Nathan Freier

Nonresident Senior Fellow

GeoStrategy Initiative Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

China Conflict

Staff

Katherine Spencer

Program Assistant

Eurasia Center

Central Asia Conflict

Fellow

Yarely Madrid

Nonresident Journalist Fellow

Global China Hub

China Latin America
Load More