The Atlantic hires former WSJ assistant editor Beckett

Former Wall Street Journal assistant editor Paul Beckett has been hired by The Atlantic as a senior editor.

He will be responsible for national security and foreign policy coverage.

Beckett spent 34 years at The Journal. He most recently oversaw the newspaper’s efforts to secure the release of reporter Evan Gershkovich from a Russian prison.

Prior to this role, Beckett was the Washington bureau chief, responsible for news across politics and government, economics, national security, the Supreme Court, financial regulation and the intersection of business and Washington.

Before taking the helm of the bureau in 2017, Beckett was Asia editor, in charge of the Journal’s print and digital editorial operations across the region.

He moved to Hong Kong in 2013 after six years as South Asia editor, based in New Delhi, where he started WSJ’s India Real Time blog and its India news website, india.wsj.com.

In 2008, Beckett and the bureau won an Overseas Press Club award for their India coverage. In July 2013, he was co-author of the HarperCollins book “Crimes Against Women: Three Tragedies and the Call for Reform in India,” a compilation of WSJ’s reporting on women’s issues in 2012 and 2013.