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Dec 17, 2024
What will the world, and America’s place in it, look like after another four years of President Donald Trump? Since Election Day, I’ve been asked that question by foreign...
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Dec 10, 2024
A great many actors had a hand in the fall of Syria’s dictator, Bashar al-Assad: Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Islamist group that led the offensive; Turkey, which nurtured...
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Dec 6, 2024
The world’s most successful alliance needs a transformation and, paradoxically, Donald Trump might just be the leader who delivers it. His presidency offers a timely...
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Nov 25, 2024
The US is in the midst of its presidential transition, but the world isn’t waiting patiently for Jan. 20 to arrive. Russia’s Vladimir Putin is pressing his advantage in...
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Nov 19, 2024
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Nov 15, 2024
The Middle East has long been a source of misery for Washington. It could be a land of opportunity for Donald Trump.
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Nov 11, 2024
The deployment of North Korean troops to fight in Russia’s war against Ukraine was one October surprise among many. November, December and the months thereafter...
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Nov 6, 2024
Joe Biden’s foreign policy will be remembered for many things: the humiliating exit from Afghanistan, the stalwart response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the struggle...
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Oct 19, 2024
The war in Ukraine is going badly for the good guys. Ukraine is slowly losing on the eastern front. Its forces are plagued by a dearth of manpower and ammunition.
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Oct 11, 2024
As wars have ravaged Ukraine and the Middle East in 2024, the situation around Taiwan has been comparatively quiet. The crisis many observers were expecting when the year...
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Oct 2, 2024
The Israeli airstrike that killed Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah deep in his Beirut bunker was the culmination of one of the most lethally effective, targeted military...
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Sep 28, 2024
Since the war in Ukraine started, avoiding escalation — a leap into a larger, more globally consuming conflict — has been US President Joe Biden’s abiding...
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Sep 24, 2024
After all the political upheaval of the last three months, America’s presidential race remains too close to call. Yet whatever happens in November, global affairs won’t...
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Sep 17, 2024
Vice President Kamala Harris, in last week’s debate with former President Donald Trump, repeated her call for the US to maintain the world’s most...
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Sep 11, 2024
Even by the Middle Eastern standards, the past year has been full of surprises. A bolt-from-the-blue attack by Hamas produced the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.
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Sep 4, 2024
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan traveled to Beijing last week for what the White House called “candid, substantive, and constructive” — in...
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Sep 3, 2024
Nuclear nonproliferation is one of America’s greatest, and most underrated, strategic achievements. Almost 80 years after Hiroshima, fewer than 10 countries possess the...
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Aug 27, 2024
As America’s presidential campaign nears its climax, domestic politics and geopolitics are combining to stimulate an important strategic debate. Briefly stated, the question...
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Aug 9, 2024
The Middle East has reached yet another explosive juncture. The region is bracing for impact as Iran and its proxies—notably Hezbollah and the Houthis—presumably plot...
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Aug 3, 2024
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Jul 27, 2024
Foreign policy is rarely the dominant issue in US presidential elections. But it does, invariably, matter at the margins, and in a close race the margins can matter quite a...
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Jul 25, 2024
From Ukraine to Gaza to the South China Sea, the world is littered with crises. International cooperation is paralyzed by diplomatic rivalry; techno-optimism has given way to a...
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Jul 12, 2024
The global democratic community is strong, but it isn’t particularly stable right now. Amid the unending political churn of post-Brexit Britain, the Conservatives just suffered...
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Jul 5, 2024
There are lies, damn lies and rumors about North Korea. So treat recent reports that Pyongyang will send troops to aid Russia’s assault on Ukraine with more than a...
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Jun 26, 2024
Israel faces several grave decisions in the coming weeks — what to do in Gaza after the fighting in Rafah concludes, how to balance the campaign against Hamas with the quest to...
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Jun 12, 2024
Artificial intelligence will change our everyday lives in innumerable ways: how governments serve their citizens; how we drive (and get driven); how we handle and, we hope, protect...
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May 27, 2024
What would become of the world if the United States became a normal great power? This isn’t to ask what would happen if the United States retreated into outright...
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May 21, 2024
Ukraine’s fate is no longer hostage to neo-isolationists in the US Congress. But its fortunes are still at their lowest ebb since the desperate days after the initial...
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May 16, 2024
Foreign policy experts have worried for decades about a second Korean War. No one ever imagined it would happen in Ukraine.
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May 3, 2024
Sometimes, foreign policy is simply about averting catastrophe. By that metric, Washington did well last week.
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Apr 24, 2024
Ukraine burns and the Middle East simmers, but the Western Pacific appears relatively placid. There hasn’t been a major crisis in US-China relations since the spy balloon...
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Apr 19, 2024
Don’t let the paltry damage caused by Iran’s missile and drone attack on Israel last weekend fool you. The Iranians intended to cause widespread death and destruction....
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Apr 17, 2024
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Apr 17, 2024
The ghosts of empire are haunting Eurasia. President Xi Jinping’s China is seeking to reclaim the power and privileges of the great dynasties that once bestrode Asia. President...
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Apr 11, 2024
President Joe Biden’s Middle East policy hangs in the balance. Negotiations for a cease-fire in Gaza have reached a critical stage. Attacks by the Houthis in Yemen are snarling...
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Mar 29, 2024
The U.S. alliance system: there’s never been anything quite like it. Ancient Athens helmed the Delian League.
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Mar 27, 2024
Our world resembles the 1930s more than we might think. Now, as then, the balance of power is shifting ominously. Violent autocracies are seeking expansive empires. Ties between...
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Mar 23, 2024
The Houthis are sinking ships and killing sailors. China is waging a persistent campaign to make the South China Sea its own private lake. Russia is claiming...
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Mar 7, 2024
It’s one of the classic lines in America cinema. In Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Paul Newman and Robert Redford are cornered by a posse of lawmen, and the only...
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Mar 1, 2024
As former President Donald Trump rolls toward the Republican nomination, countries everywhere are preparing for what a Trump restoration might mean. Few have more at stake in the...
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Feb 29, 2024
Can America Save the Liberal Order Through Illiberal Means?
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Feb 27, 2024
Year one of Vladimir Putin’s vicious war in Ukraine saw Russia fall flat on its face. Year two saw it get back on its feet. As we enter year three, the momentum is shifting in...
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Feb 23, 2024
Ask historians to name America’s greatest foreign policy blunders, and you’ll often hear a litany of misbegotten interventions — Vietnam, Iraq,...
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Feb 8, 2024
If the Pentagon hits Iran hard, will Iran back down or fight back?
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Jan 29, 2024
Amid cascading crises — a stalemated war in Ukraine, a febrile and violent Middle East, a clash for primacy with China — it is easy to despair for America’s global...
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Jan 26, 2024
The post-Cold War era began, in the early 1990s, with soaring visions of global peace.
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Jan 18, 2024
Ukraine confronts a grim 2024. The battlefield is stalemated. Its cities are facing brutal Russian attacks. The resolve of its Western partners may be flagging. This isn’t the...
Jun 26, 2024Israel faces several grave decisions in the coming weeks — what to do in Gaza after the fighting in Rafah concludes, how to balance the campaign against Hamas with the quest to...
Jun 12, 2024Artificial intelligence will change our everyday lives in innumerable ways: how governments serve their citizens; how we drive (and get driven); how we handle and, we hope, protect...
May 27, 2024What would become of the world if the United States became a normal great power? This isn’t to ask what would happen if the United States retreated into outright...
May 21, 2024Ukraine’s fate is no longer hostage to neo-isolationists in the US Congress. But its fortunes are still at their lowest ebb since the desperate days after the initial...
May 16, 2024Foreign policy experts have worried for decades about a second Korean War. No one ever imagined it would happen in Ukraine. 
May 3, 2024Sometimes, foreign policy is simply about averting catastrophe. By that metric, Washington did well last week.
Apr 24, 2024Ukraine burns and the Middle East simmers, but the Western Pacific appears relatively placid. There hasn’t been a major crisis in US-China relations since the spy balloon...
Apr 19, 2024Don’t let the paltry damage caused by Iran’s missile and drone attack on Israel last weekend fool you. The Iranians intended to cause widespread death and destruction....
Apr 17, 2024The ghosts of empire are haunting Eurasia. President Xi Jinping’s China is seeking to reclaim the power and privileges of the great dynasties that once bestrode Asia. President...
Mar 29, 2024The U.S. alliance system: there’s never been anything quite like it. Ancient Athens helmed the Delian League.
Mar 27, 2024Our world resembles the 1930s more than we might think. Now, as then, the balance of power is shifting ominously. Violent autocracies are seeking expansive empires. Ties between...
Mar 23, 2024The Houthis are sinking ships and killing sailors. China is waging a persistent campaign to make the South China Sea its own private lake. Russia is claiming...
Mar 7, 2024It’s one of the classic lines in America cinema. In Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Paul Newman and Robert Redford are cornered by a posse of lawmen, and the only...
Mar 1, 2024As former President Donald Trump rolls toward the Republican nomination, countries everywhere are preparing for what a Trump restoration might mean. Few have more at stake in the...
Feb 29, 2024Can America Save the Liberal Order Through Illiberal Means?
Feb 27, 2024Year one of Vladimir Putin’s vicious war in Ukraine saw Russia fall flat on its face. Year two saw it get back on its feet. As we enter year three, the momentum is shifting in...
Feb 23, 2024Ask historians to name America’s greatest foreign policy blunders, and you’ll often hear a litany of misbegotten interventions — Vietnam, Iraq,...
Feb 8, 2024If the Pentagon hits Iran hard, will Iran back down or fight back? 
Jan 29, 2024Amid cascading crises — a stalemated war in Ukraine, a febrile and violent Middle East, a clash for primacy with China — it is easy to despair for America’s global...
Jan 26, 2024The post-Cold War era began, in the early 1990s, with soaring visions of global peace. 
Jan 18, 2024Ukraine confronts a grim 2024. The battlefield is stalemated. Its cities are facing brutal Russian attacks. The resolve of its Western partners may be flagging. This isn’t the...