The Big Story

Apocalypse later?

By By Dean Jackson and Meghan Conroy

A consensus among experts is emerging that AI’s chief short-term impact on elections will not be to create wholly new problems but rather to make previous threats more common and easier to carry out by a wider array of actors, leading to a higher volume of disinformation, cyberattacks, and other issues.

Where Erdogan loses balance

Turkey’s president has become a central player in world affairs by balancing competing interests. But in the conflict roiling the Middle East, he risks being left out of the game.

The top risks and opportunities for 2024

By Peter Engelke, Paul Saffo

2023 was marked by war in the Middle East and in Europe. What else looms on the horizon? The Atlantic Council’s top experts brought their globe-spanning expertise to the task of forecasting the near future.

Six ‘snow leopards’ to watch for in 2024

Atlantic Council foresight experts spot the underappreciated phenomena that could have outsize impact on the world, driving global change and shaping the future.

Global Foresight 2024

In this year’s Global Foresight edition, our experts identify the top risks and opportunities for 2024. Our foresight team spots “snow leopards” that could have major unexpected impacts in 2024 and beyond. And we share findings from our survey of global strategists and foresight practitioners on how human affairs could unfold over the next decade.

Welcome to 2034: What the world could look like in ten years, according to nearly 300 experts  

To survey the future, we polled global strategists and foresight practitioners on our most burning questions about the biggest drivers of change over the next decade. Check out their forecasts on everything from the likelihood of war over Taiwan to the future of AI.

The Global Foresight 2024 survey: Full results

In the fall of 2023, the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security surveyed the future, asking leading global strategists and foresight practitioners around the world to answer our most burning questions about the biggest drivers of change over the next ten years. Here are the full results. 

Distortion by design: How social media platforms shaped our initial understanding of the Israel-Hamas conflict

By Emerson T. Brooking, Layla Mashkoor, Jacqueline Malaret

Almost as soon as the Israel-Hamas war began, it collided with the engineering and policy decisions of social media companies. On Telegram, terrorist content spread mostly uncontested; on X, false claims proliferated. Accusations of anti-Palestinian bias at Meta and pro-Palestinian bias at TikTok added to the confusion. Can the platforms thread this needle?

The global consequences of the Israel-Hamas war are just beginning. Here’s what to watch.

By Kirsten Fontenrose

It’s hard to predict what decisions the players will make tomorrow, but here are the early warning signs that could indicate what will come next in the Middle East and beyond.

Six ‘snow leopards’ to watch for in 2023 

Atlantic Council foresight experts spot the underappreciated phenomena that could have outsize impact on the world, driving global change and shaping the future.