The Atlantic Expands Reporting on Defense, Military Intelligence, and Global Conflict: National Security Section and Newsletter Launch Today

The Atlantic

08-07-2025

The Atlantic is launching a new section that marks a dramatic expansion of reporting at the intersection of national defense, technology, and global conflict. New reporting will appear in a just-launched National Security section and newsletter. The Atlantic 's August issue is also devoted to the topic: the cover package, ' Eighty Years on the Edge,' examines the past eight decades of life in the Atomic Age.
The Atlantic —already known for its leading coverage of foreign policy and defense—has been scaling its newsroom to add more reporting in this space, led by editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg and staff writers Anne Applebaum, Shane Harris, Tom Nichols, Missy Ryan, Isaac Stanley-Becker, Nancy Youssef, and many others. Today it announces the newest member of this team: Vivian Salama, who has most recently covered the White House and national security for The Wall Street Journal, and was previously a reporter for the AP, CNN, and NBC. Her reporting has taken her across America and to more than 85 countries.
In a note to readers about this reporting expansion, Goldberg writes: 'Today, as the post–World War II international order constructed and maintained by the United States is under unprecedented pressure (from within and without), issues of national defense and America's role in the world are among the most urgent we face. Which is why The Atlantic is committed to rapidly and dramatically expanding the scope and scale of our coverage.'
New reporting for today's launch:
– ' Trump's New Favorite General ': Contributing writer and Black Hawk Down author Mark Bowden profiles the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan 'Razin'' Caine, with extensive access to those who know him best. Trump picked Caine for this role at least in part because he loved his nickname; the president has also repeatedly and incorrectly said that it was Caine who donned a MAGA hat with Trump and vowed to 'kill' for him. But this person wasn't Caine. Bowden writes that Caine 'is known to be apolitical, and is genuinely liked. Where Trump is boisterous and self-aggrandizing, Caine is retiring and reflexively self-deprecating. The chairman is openly religious and prays over important decisions.' Bowden writes that it would be hard to list all the points of potential friction in store for Caine; Trump is given to flashy displays and fancy and expensive new armaments at a time when the military's industrial base is incapable of meeting basic demand for munitions. He writes: 'Caine's hasty elevation may also put him in the awkward position of having to deal with service chiefs and combatant commanders whom he now outranks. There is a danger, from both the Pentagon and the White House, that he will find himself sidelined. And if Trump doesn't like what he hears from his top military adviser, he can always just stop listening—or send Caine to join Brown, Milley, Mattis, and Kelly in private life.'
– ' The Nuclear Club Might Soon Double ': Staff writer Ross Andersen reports from South Korea and Japan that as American power recedes, these countries may pursue nuclear programs. His article explores the idea that with all the recent focus on Iran, East Asia is where the world's fastest buildups of nuclear warfare are unfolding, in China and North Korea. He writes that 'a dangerous proliferation cascade may be about to break out, right in the shadow of Hiroshima. It would likely start in South Korea, and spread first to Japan. It might not stop there. The decades-long effort to keep nuclear weapons from spreading across the planet may be about to collapse.'
– ' What Pete Hegseth Doesn't Understand About Soldiers ': Retired Army Special Forces Officer Mike Nelson writes that Hegseth risks creating a false dichotomy: that one must choose between lethality and professionalism. This view comes at a cost to operational effectiveness as well as moral clarity. For all the complaints about weakness and wokeness, Nelson writes, America's military remains at its most effective when inspired to maintain both its professionalism and its warrior culture.
Last week, we published editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg on how the only way to win at nuclear roulette is to stop playing; Tom Nichols on why the power to launch nuclear weapons rests with a single American and the danger that involves; and the writer Noah Hawley on Kurt Vonnegut and the bomb. And later this week, deputy managing editor Andrew Aoyama writes about Joseph Kurihara, a Japanese American activist who was interned during WWII, after fighting for the U.S. during WWI.