This year, Europe and the US finally awoke to face reality: the post-Cold War world has ended.
Nearly four years ago, Russia’s unprovoked, full-scale invasion of Ukraine rattled the foundations of world order. In 2025, the US administration moved swiftly to rebalance and reshape international security, trade, and technology policy — with Europe beginning to take responsibility for its own defense — and decision-makers on both sides of the Atlantic are charting new courses to navigate geopolitical change.
Despite these shifts, this year has seen significant wins for the transatlantic alliance.
The 2025 NATO Summit in The Hague re-energized the alliance with a historic commitment from members to spend 5% of GDP on defense investments. The US and Europe are also prioritizing economic security, looking to invest in supply chains crucial to emerging technologies and defense production. The tech race intensified as the Trump administration took serious steps to unleash US innovation after China’s reveal of DeepSeek, an AI model capable of competing with US models on a global scale, surprised many leaders. At the same time, Europe began to advance reforms aimed at boosting its global competitiveness.
As in early 2022, predictions of Ukraine’s imminent collapse proved premature. Ukrainians are still holding the line on the battlefield as rounds of negotiations to end the war continue. No one wants peace more than Ukraine. Ukraine’s innovation in defense tech continues to push the envelope on defining the character of war, and there are many lessons Europe and the US should learn from the country’s experience. It is crucial to ensure this technology does not fall into Russian and Chinese hands.
To be sure, this year also saw some tension in the US-Europe relationship. But as Washington and its partners and allies across the globe learn to navigate in this new world, there is still a lot to play for. Transatlantic trade underpins the largest economic bloc in the world, with over $1.3 trillion in goods and services are exchanged across the Atlantic annually. Together, the US and Europe are a defense and economic juggernaut; neither can go at it alone as China and Russia seek to end US global preeminence.
This year has been one of growth and impact for CEPA. Our world-class experts were regularly called to testify before the US Congress and European Parliament; they authored over 30 in-depth reports and 600 articles while providing 20,000 quotes and citations for major media outlets, and joined in hundreds of events on both sides of the Atlantic. We also launched the CEPA Podcast that features interviews with Members of Congress and other high-level officials. All this activity reinforces the foundations of the transatlantic alliance.
This year, CEPA has delivered concrete and actionable solutions to the most urgent challenges facing the alliance. CEPA’s pillars of work at the intersection of technology and security addressed the top-of-mind issues for policymakers over the last year, from our groundbreaking work on deterring Russian shadow war, to our roadmap for a positive US-Europe tech agenda, and the future of autonomous and uncrewed systems.
We wrapped up the year with a celebration of our 20th Anniversary with the Leadership Awards Dinner where we honored impact-makers and leaders including Howard G. Buffett, Chairman and CEO of the Howard G. Buffett Foundation; Brian Moynihan, Chair and CEO of Bank of America; H.E. Ulf Kristersson, Prime Minister of Sweden; Gen. Chris Cavoli, former Supreme Allied Commander Europe and Commander of US European Command, and Ukrainian journalists risking their lives to document Russian war crimes in Ukraine.
As we enter 2026, CEPA will continue to advance our founding mission of ensuring a strong and democratic transatlantic alliance for future generations by expanding our networks across the political spectrum and providing cutting-edge expert analysis, actionable policy solutions, and impactful content to explain an increasingly complex world.
As a final reflection on CEPA’s work in 2025, I wanted to share a selection of agenda-setting ideas and analysis from CEPA’s experts that I found particularly thought-provoking, and I hope you will too.
Dr. Alina Polyakova is President and CEO of the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) as well as the Donald Marron Senior Fellow at the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).
CEPA is a nonpartisan, nonprofit, public policy institution. All opinions expressed are those of the author(s) alone and may not represent those of the institutions they represent or the Center for European Policy Analysis. CEPA maintains a strict intellectual independence policy across all its projects and publications.
Year in Review: 2025
Russia’s Shadow War
War Without End: Russia’s Shadow Warfare
To secure its grip on power, Russia adopts Soviet practices coupled with modern tactics of covert influence, violence, and manipulation.
In War Without End: Russia’s Shadow Warfare, Samuel Greene, Andrei Soldatov, and Irina Borogan explain how Russia, to secure its grip on power, adopts Soviet practices coupled with modern tactics of covert influence, violence, and manipulation.
- The Hybrid Threat Imperative: Deterring Russia Before it is Too Late
- Russia and China’s Shadow War in Europe
A Roadmap for Europe-US Tech Cooperation
Tech 2030: A Roadmap for Europe-US Tech Cooperation
A US-Europe tech partnership is key to independence from China.
CEPA outlines why the US-Europe tech partnership is key to independence from China in Tech 2030: A Roadmap for Europe-US Tech Cooperation.
Russia-China: Cooperation and Competition
Moscow-Beijing Nexus
Cooperation and Competition
The strategic partnership between Moscow and Beijing is by now incontrovertible. CEPA’s analysis series Moscow-Beijing Nexus: Cooperation and Competition aims to shed light on the foundations and limitations of that relationship.
- War and Sino-Russian Partnership: An Indispensable but Uneasy Relationship
- China — The Real Winner From Russian Victory in Ukraine
The Future of Defense Technologies
High Stakes in the High North
Harnessing Uncrewed Capabilities for Arctic Defense
In High Stakes in the High North: Harnessing Uncrewed Capabilities for Arctic Defense and Security, Federico Borsari and Gordon B. “Skip” Davis Jr. highlight how uncrewed systems are helping allies confront the rapidly changing security dynamics in the Arctic.
- Defend in the Cloud: Boost NATO Data Resilience
- Adaptation Under Fire: Mass, Speed, and Accuracy Transform Russia’s Kill Chain In Ukraine
The CEPA Podcast
CEPA is proud to host the CEPA Podcast, a series of dynamic interviews bringing together leaders and experts from both sides of the Atlantic to explore the most important challenges shaping our world today!
