One Story to Read Today highlights a single newly published—or newly relevant—Atlantic story that’s worth your time. The Pentagon official Elbridge Colby “has come to the view that to meet the supreme challenge of China, other priorities will have to be sacrificed,” Nancy A. Youssef, Jonathan Lemire, and Missy Ryan write. |
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| | (Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Kent Nishimura / Bloomberg / Getty.) | | | |
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| Elbridge Colby believes that China is the only country on the planet that has the ambition, resources, and military might to knock the United States off its pedestal as the world’s leading superpower. Most in President Donald Trump’s administration agree. But even by the standards of MAGA world, Colby is a divisive figure. And the Pentagon policy master’s prescription for how to counter China’s rise explains why. The only way to stop Beijing’s bid for global dominance, he has argued, is for the U.S. to pour everything it can into securing the Western Pacific, even if doing so comes at the expense of combating Russia or maintaining U.S. influence in the Middle East. That is, to remain superpowerful, the U.S. may need to temporarily stop superpowering. | |
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