Foreign Affairs | RCP Story Stream

Poland is a Model U.S. Ally – Let’s Act Like It March 25, 2025

Earlier this month, Elon Musk inserted himself into another political debate about Russia’s war on Ukraine. In his comments, he noted his Starlink system as the “backbone” of the Ukrainian army, asserting that, “their entire frontline would collapse”...

Poland

Ukraine

history

China Has Already Remade the International System March 25, 2025

In early February, as he flew in Air Force One above the body of water he’d recently renamed the Gulf of America, President Donald Trump declared that he would levy tariffs on all imported steel and aluminum. ...

china

Why Everyone Thinks Their Government Has Failed March 25, 2025

Incumbency was once a powerful electoral advantage: A sitting leader could cement bonds with constituents and donors that translated into support at the ballot box. ...

Foreign Affairs

Europe’s War in Ukraine March 24, 2025

Relations between the United States and its European allies have proved tempestuous during the first two months of the second Trump administration. ...

Ukraine

Conquest Is Back March 21, 2025

The norm against territorial conquest is a pillar of the post–1945 international order, but that pillar is now crumbling. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 is certainly the most egregious recent violation of this prohibition—an outlier, as an atte...

Ukraine

Progressive Internationalism Against American Interests March 20, 2025

Calls for a progressive-oriented U.S. foreign policy have been gradually growing since at least the end of the Obama administration. One such argument recently made in Foreign Affairs by Megan Stewart, Jonathan Petkun, and Mara Revkin epitomizes the ...

internationalism

Would Americans Go to War Against China? March 20, 2025

When it comes to military force, U.S. President Donald Trump has taken a starkly split stance. On the one hand, Trump is a self-professed skeptic of foreign entanglements. ...

china

Does America Face a “Ship Gap” With China? March 19, 2025

Over the past few years, concerns about China’s navy and its potential threat to U.S. interests have steadily grown. Two decades ago, the U.S. Navy had 282 battle-force ships against the Chinese navy’s 220, but by the mid-2010s this advantage had dis...

china

How to Match Ends and Means in the Middle East March 19, 2025

For years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States enjoyed superpower status in a unipolar world. Its economy roared, and its military power went unmatched. When it came to pursuing its goals, Washington had to contend with few obsta...

Middle East

The Fragile Axis of Upheaval March 18, 2025

Even regional wars have geopolitical consequences, and when it comes to Russia’s war on Ukraine, the most important of these has been the formation of a loose entente among China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia. Some U.S. national security experts hav...

china

iran

North Korea

Can Iran Save Itself? March 17, 2025

Over the past year, Iran has grappled with a series of setbacks. Hamas and Hezbollah, Tehran’s long-standing nonstate regional allies, have been weakened by Israel. President Bashar al-Assad’s government in Syria collapsed suddenly and spectacularly....

iran

The Key to Ukraine’s Survival March 17, 2025

The United States’ sudden, although ultimately temporary, suspension of all security assistance to Ukraine in early March raised alarms about Ukraine’s ability to defend itself....

Ukraine

The Promise of the Egyptian Plan for Gaza March 15, 2025

In a press conference with Jordanian King Abdullah in February, U.S. President Donald Trump touted his proposal that the United States should seize control of Gaza, empty it of its roughly two million residents, and redevelop the territory as a touri...

Egypt

U.S. Should Focus in the Western Hemisphere March 14, 2025

The United States is now engaged in an intense dialogue about the future of its relations with its European and Asian allies. This debate has been emotional, in part because it has been cast as a morality tale. On the one hand, advocates of U.S. Pres...

The Incoherent Case for Tariffs March 13, 2025

Less than two months into his second term, U.S. President Donald Trump has made good—with startling intensity—on his campaign promise to impose tariffs. ...

tariffs

economics

Would a Peace Deal in Ukraine Last? March 13, 2025

Apeace settlement to end a major war can be an opportunity to reorder the world. After the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte in France, European leaders negotiated new territorial boundaries at the Congress of Vienna, in 1814–15, in an attempt to establis...

Iran Could Lose Iraq March 11, 2025

Ever since its revolution in 1979, Iran has cultivated a network of proxies and friends throughout the Middle East. For years, this strategy proved successful. Slowly but surely, Tehran’s “axis of resistance” gained influence in Iraq, Lebanon, and Sy...

iran

Iraq

Make Canada boring again March 11, 2025

Almost 40 years ago, New York Times foreign affairs columnist Flora Lewis wrote a piece titled “Worthwhile Canadian Initiative.” Upon seeing it, the New Republic’s Michael Kinsley challenged his readers to come up with a more boring headline. And alt...

canada

The Limits of a U.S.-China Deal March 08, 2025

In his first few weeks back in the Oval Office, U.S. President Donald Trump has taken a split-screen approach to his dealings with China, leaving U.S. financial markets, multinational firms, and Chinese leaders in limbo....

A Plan for Peace Through Strength in Ukraine March 07, 2025

There have been recurring strains in the U.S.-Ukrainian relationship under both Trump administrations....

Ukraine

In Syria, Moving Forward Means Looking Back March 05, 2025

In the months since the militant opposition group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham stunned the world by bringing down the dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad in early December 2024, Syria has faced many pressing concerns. The country is ravaged and war-torn. More th...

Syria

The Coming Age of Territorial Expansion March 04, 2025

Since the mid-twentieth century, the power dynamics and system of alliances that made up the postwar global order provided a strong check on campaigns to conquer and acquire territory—an otherwise enduring feature of human history....

foreign policy

Europe’s Moment of Truth March 03, 2025

The disastrous meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance at the White House on February 28 has led to a stark moment of truth for the Western alliance. ...

Europe

How Far Will Rwanda Go in Congo? March 03, 2025

Amid Western Inaction, Kigali Is Carving Up Its Neighbor and Reigniting a Regional War ...

Illiberal Democracy Is the New Global Norm January 07, 2025

Many of the political ideas we thought were taken for granted at the end of the 20th century have cracked and crumbled...

Foreign Affairs