As the year draws to a close, experts reflect on the positives of 2024 and share their concerns for 2025.*

AI models enable malicious actors to manipulate information and disrupt electoral processes, threatening democracies. Tackling these challenges requires a comprehensive approach that combines technical solutions and societal efforts.

The incoming Trump administration plans to focus on China while letting Europe fend for itself. Yet deprioritizing the transatlantic relationship could backfire, pushing Europe closer to Beijing and undermining U.S. interests in the long term.

A stronger NATO is essential to preserving peace through deterrence and defense, while addressing the security challenges and threats facing the transatlantic community. But how can the alliance dial up its defenses at a time of geopolitical upheaval and technological transformation?

After the fast disintegration of the Assad regime, the difficult reconstruction of the Syrian state is only just beginning. Meanwhile, Europe, Israel, Russia, Türkiye, and the United States have major stakes in Syria’s complex future.

Europe’s digital future cannot hinge on Washington’s whims or the outcome of elections every four years. To achieve a level of technological autonomy, Europe needs targeted investments and responsible innovation in key sectors.

Bashar al-Assad’s fall from power has created an opportunity for the political and economic reconstruction of a key Arab state. But the record of efforts to stabilize post-conflict societies in the Middle East is littered with failure, and the next few months will most likely determine Syria's political trajectory.

Through diplomatic skill and strategy, French President Macron is making a recovery after a series of domestic and international setbacks. He now has a unique opportunity to expand Europe’s margins of maneuver on the global stage.

Moscow has been dialing up its hybrid attacks on European democracies. Are information operations the most effective tool in Russia’s arsenal—and how can European governments and societies fight back?

The EU has vowed to be more receptive of its partners’ needs and concerns. To ensure the “listening to others” mantra does not become a performative quick fix, the union must clarify how this commitment fits with its desire to exert geopolitical power.