THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE: The latest issue features “EMPIRE OF GRIFT” – Anne Applebaum examines how hardened ideologues and opportunistic profiteers are bending American diplomacy to advance an antidemocratic agenda—and their own financial interests. For our cover, the illustrator Ben Hickey created an ominous image of figures in shadow arrayed around a map of the world, evoking the war-room scenes from Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 film, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.

MAGA Is Making the World Safe for Corruption

Far-right ideologues have transformed American foreign policy into a tool of private gain and antidemocratic reaction. By Anne Applebaum

What Trump’s Bizarre Posts Are Teaching Us About AI

The president’s recent Truth Social barrage of fake images reflects the dangers—for all of us—of virtual self-aggrandizement. By Gal Beckerman

A Diagnosis for Social Conflict That Gets Lost Along the Way

A new book suggests that arguing isn’t about winning but seems preoccupied with it anyway. By Lily Meyer