Leaving Afghanistan

A man looks through an IDP fence in Kabul.

A dozen provincial capitals have fallen as Afghan forces prepare to defend Kabul.

Afghans Need a Humanitarian Intervention Right Now

The U.S. withdrawal should continue. But a new military engagement should begin.

How Did Things Go So Bad So Fast in Afghanistan?

The State Department weighs evacuating the U.S. embassy in Kabul as more cities fall.

What Went Wrong With Afghanistan’s Defense Forces?

Ten provincial capitals have fallen in a week, and Kabul is teetering.

Leaving Afghanistan

What happens to the country and its people after the forever war ends?

Shadow Government

A front-row seat to the Republicans’ debate over foreign policy, including their critique of the Biden administration.

U.S. climate envoy John Kerry speaks in Russia.

John Kerry Wants the ‘Greatest Economic Transformation Since the Industrial Revolution’

But others question the “market-based” approach of Biden’s chief climate envoy.

Stefano Bonaccini, the president of the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna and a member of Italy’s Democratic Party, addresses a press conference in Bologna on Jan. 27, 2020.

Italy’s Largest Left-Wing Party Is Waging War on the Poor

The Democratic Party cares more about fighting populists than ending inequality.

Demonstrators take part in a climate march in Bonn, Germany.

The End of Coal Is Coming Sooner Than You Think

Despair elides the progress made over the last two decades.

Children pose for photographs in front of their tents at a camp for internally displaced families in Panjwai district of Kandahar province on March 31, 2021.

The Coming Afghan Refugee Crisis Is Only a Preview

More desperate migrants will head West in coming years—and the West’s migration policies must change in response.

Animals and Diplomacy

Russian President Vladimir Putin kisses a Turkmen shepherd dog, locally known as Alabai, received from Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov during a meeting in Sochi, Russia, on Oct. 11, 2017.  (Maxim Shemetov/AFP/Getty Images)

Let Slip the Dogs of Diplomacy!

A very brief recent history of animals in foreign affairs.

A humpback whale spyhops off Rockaway Beach in New York City with the Empire State Building in the background on Sept. 23, 2013.

Take a Breath, Thank a Whale

Like the Amazon rainforest, the planet’s whales play crucial roles as carbon captors. That’s just one reason to save them.

A poster released by the Alberta Department of Public Health circa 1948. (A17202b/Provincial Archives of Alberta)

How Alberta Won the Rat Race

One Canadian province has virtually eliminated its vermin—and shows how others can too.

FerrisRotman_SW_V1

The Diplomacy of Dog Walking in Russia

Meet the woman in Moscow caring for the U.S. canines of state.

In the Magazine

In the Magazine

Angela Merkel

The Other Side of Angela Merkel

What the world has misunderstood about the German chancellor.

Bideneconomics_economy-reagan-trickle-down-mike-mcquade-illustration-homepage

The Bidenomics Revolution

If he succeeds, the president will cast 40 years of economic doctrine on history’s ash heap. But that’s a big if.

Age and the Agbayas

One word perfectly captures the clash between Nigeria’s leaders and its booming young population.

Russian, U.S., Spanish, and British passports on a table with visa application forms.

The State Department’s Visa-Issuing Authority Is in Crisis

How “the worst consular system in the world” was turned around—and why it needs to happen again.

Law enforcement officials in riot gear force people protesting the police killing of Andrew Brown Jr. off a street in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, on April 28.

The ‘Global Policeman’ Is Not Exempt From Justice

Confronting the violence of U.S. policing requires an international perspective.

The sun rises over Lindsey oil refinery in North Lincolnshire on Jan. 30, 2009.

Why The World’s Governments Should Pay Polluters

Britain’s decision to compensate slaveholders was unjust, unpalatable—and effective.

USAID Administrator Samantha Power speaks in Khartoum during a trip to East Africa.

Why Did Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Rebuff Samantha Power?

The head of the U.S. Agency for International Development was seeking greater access for aid workers in Tigray.

An oil worker in South Sudan

Is Africa Headed for a Financial Crisis?

A rerun of the 2013 “taper tantrum” could spell disaster for emerging economies.

Assault rifles are displayed for sale at Blue Ridge Arsenal in Chantilly, Virginia, on Oct. 6, 2017.

Why Mexico Is Right to Sue U.S. Gun Companies

The lawsuit over drug cartel violence could be part of a bigger change on guns.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un listens to then-U.S. President Donald Trump (not pictured) during a meeting in Hanoi on Feb. 27, 2019.

North Korea’s Curious COVID-19 Strategy

Pyongyang faces a looming catastrophe but is in no hurry to vaccinate its people.

The High Court in Malaysia

Malaysia’s Sexist Citizenship Law Is Keeping Families Apart

Malaysian mothers can’t automatically pass on their nationality to foreign-born children. The pandemic has worsened the law’s ill effects.

A nurse takes Moderna COVID-19 vaccines ready to be administered at a vaccination site in Los Angeles on Feb. 16.

The Science Says Everyone Needs a COVID-19 Booster Shot—and Soon

The biology of the delta variant has made mass revaccination an urgent necessity.

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya addresses the U.N. Security Council from her office in Vilnius, Lithuania, on Sept. 4, 2020.

Belarus’s Unlikely New Leader

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya didn’t set out to challenge a brutal dictatorship.

Israeli soldiers eat ice cream.

An Israeli-Palestinian Ice Cream Sandwich

Inside the dueling campaigns using Ben & Jerry’s to move U.S. sentiment on Israel.

un-climate-tooze-homepage

Present at the Creation of a Climate Alliance—or Climate Conflict

The United States and Europe are on the brink of decisions that could save the planet—or tear apart the West.

visual stories

Rescuers look for people in landslide in Japan

The Month in World Photos

Ravaging floods in Europe and Asia, a wave of unrest in South Africa, and a young speller’s triumph in the United States.

An Afghan woman and her cousin are interviewed in Bamiyan province

As Taliban Expand Control, Concerns About Forced Marriage and Sex Slavery Rise

In some Afghan towns, women are fleeing ahead of insurgent takeovers.