A view of a building damaged by the August 4 blast in Beirut on Nov. 5.

Lebanon’s Concrete Cartel

How business interests prevent Lebanon from rebuilding its infrastructure, government, and economy.

House Intelligence Committee ranking member Devin Nunes

Trump Ally Nunes Seeks to Derail Key Bill Funding Intelligence Community

The spy agencies will still get money, but Trump’s House allies are trying to hobble much-needed reforms.

Researchers working for Covid Vaccines

Why Global Collaboration is Critical for Driving Innovation

From the medical industry to the tech sector, collaboration benefits companies and consumers alike

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The Biden Transition

All the new hires and plans in one place. Click to read FP’s coverage on a fraught transfer of power.

An intensive care unit nurse during the coronavirus pandemic

Numbers Aren’t Reality, but You Can’t Govern Without Them

Picking the right statistics has been critical to handling—or botching—the coronavirus pandemic.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen after Brexit talks at EU headquarters in Brussels on Dec. 9.

Why the World Should Root for the EU in Brexit Talks

If Brussels folds, it will mark the end of the last, best hope for stopping a race to the bottom.

High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell speaks on relations with the United States during a plenary session of the European Parliament in Brussels on Nov. 11, 2020.

How to Kick-Start a New Trans-Atlantic Era

The European Union’s foreign minister explains his vision for a new U.S.-Europe partnership for the next four years.

A vehicle of the U.N. Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara drives on the Moroccan side of the border crossing between Morocco and Mauritania in Guerguerat, Western Sahara on Nov. 25.

The East Timor Model Offers a Way out for Western Sahara and Morocco

Western Sahara’s fate lies in the hands of the U.N. Security Council.

Pro-China activists in Australia

Biden’s First Foreign-Policy Crisis Is Already Here

China’s threats against Australia cannot go unanswered by the United States.

Cargo truck drivers line up to cross into the United States in Tijuana, Mexico, on June 6, 2019.

2021 Could Be the Year of Free Trade

The Free Trade Area of the Americas has spent years on the back burner, but Biden could revive it when he takes office.

A municipal police officer wearing a face mask controls pedestrian traffic on Via dei Condotti in downtown Rome on Nov. 14. The Italian government imposed tighter restrictions on another five regions on Nov. 10.

Italy’s Economy Is Under Pressure as Pandemic Continues

The government is walking on a tightrope as the coronavirus crisis grinds on.

A Sudanese asylum-seeker talks during an interview in the southern part of Tel Aviv where thousands of them live, on Oct. 25.

The Kafkaesque World of Sudanese Refugees in Israel

Aid organizations fear that Israel is about to deport thousands of asylum-seekers to Sudan now that the two countries have made peace.

A Yemeni boy walks past a mural depicting a U.S. drone on Dec. 13, 2013 in the capital Sanaa.

Germany Could Have Delivered Justice for Civilian Drone Strike Victims. It Failed.

Missiles remotely fired with the assistance of a U.S. base on German soil killed my family in Yemen, but neither German nor U.S. courts are willing to hold anyone accountable.

An elderly woman waves to a volunteer during Christian Orthodox Easter celebration in Bucharest, Romania, on April 18.

Western Europe Is Losing Its Immigrants

Eastern Europeans are returning home in droves. Here’s what that means for Eastern Europe’s economies and the EU.

People in Seoul watch reporting on the U.S. presidential election

South Korea Matters More to the United States Than North Korea’s Nukes

The Biden administration should prioritize one of America’s most important allies.

In the Magazine

In the Magazine

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The Most Important Election. Ever.

Why the fate of the American republic—and the world—could depend on what happens Nov. 3.

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A Perilous Presidential Handoff

The presidential transition of power has long been a weakness of the U.S. political system. But never more so than now.

The Real Hacking Threat

It doesn’t matter if Russia actually sways the vote. What matters is whether Americans think it did.

Emerging Stronger From the Great Lockdown

The managing director and the chief economist of the International Monetary Fund lay out a strategy for sustained recovery.

Smoke spews from the stacks of a nickel plant in Monchegorsk, Russia

Document of the Week: Aid Donors Blast UNDP

A dozen donor states press the United Nations Development Program to investigate corruption allegations.

Military guests in Beijing

China Is Both Weak and Dangerous

“The China Nightmare” lays out the risks of a surprisingly fragile state.

National Security Advisor nominee Jake Sullivan speaks after being introduced by President-elect Joe Biden at the Queen Theatre in Wilmington, Delaware, on Nov. 24.

How Biden’s Future NSC Chief Wants to Reshape U.S. Foreign Policy

Jake Sullivan spent several years working on a less ambitious approach to U.S. global interests.

Then-U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and then-Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Oct. 27, 2011.

Biden Can’t Ostracize Riyadh

Branding Saudi Arabia a pariah state would be counterproductive to regional stability.

Voices

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo prepares to board his plane at the Old Doha International airport in the Qatari capital Doha, on Nov. 21, 2020.

The Pitiful Endgame of Saudi Arabia’s Qatar Blockade

As the Trump administration winds down, Riyadh is trying—and failing—to cut its losses on a failed regional policy.

Joe Biden announces the members of his health team, including his pick for secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra, at the Queen Theater December 08, 2020 in Wilmington, Delaware.

Biden Sees the A-Team. I See the Blob.

Here’s hoping the president-elect proves history wrong.

An oil pumpjack operates near Los Angeles, California on April 21.

How Biden’s Climate Plans Will Shake Up Global Energy Markets

The new administration will use foreign policy tools to promote climate goals, boost clean energy, and punish carbon-intensive production.

A sign in a shop in London advertises 5G mobile technology on Jan. 28.

How China Is Buying Up the West’s High-Tech Sector

Chinese acquisitions of Western firms are only part of the problem. Secret venture capital is handing power to Beijing under the radar.

A FOCUS ON RACE AND FOREIGN POLICY

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Why Is Mainstream International Relations Blind to Racism?

Ignoring the central role of race and colonialism in world affairs precludes an accurate understanding of the modern state system.

Black Lives Matter Protest London

When Did Racism Become Solely a Domestic Issue?

International relations theorists once explored racism. What has the field lost by giving that up?

Then-Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi (R) speaks with presidents Jacob Zuma of South Africa (L) and Denis Sassou Nguesso of Republic of Congo (C) in Tripoli on April 10, 2011 during a meeting with a high-ranking African Union delegation trying to negotiate a truce between Qaddafi's forces and rebels seeking to oust him.

By Ignoring African Leaders, the West Paved the Way for Chaos in Libya

A race-based colonial mindset that views the continent as Europe’s playground and dismisses the concerns of Africans continues to fuel death and destruction.

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Why Race Matters in International Relations

Western dominance and white privilege permeate the field. It’s time to change that.

Special insights on the post-pandemic world

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Culture Shock

Eight voices on the future of entertainment, culture, and sports.

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The Future of Travel

Seven predictions for how tourism will change.

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Will Schools and Universities Ever Return to Normal?

Nine experts on the future of education after the pandemic.

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The Future of the State

Ten leading global thinkers on government after the pandemic.

visual stories

A crane lifts the wreckage of a car as rescue workers search for survivors in the debris of a collapsed building in the Bayrakli district of Izmir, Turkey, on Nov. 1 after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Turkey’s western coast and parts of Greece. AFP via Getty Images

The Month in World Photos

November brought results in the U.S. presidential election and a sharp rise in coronavirus cases around the world—plus a deadly attack at an Afghanistan university and devastating storms in Central America and the Philippines.

A Russian peacekeeper in Nagorno-Karabakh

Russian Troops in Nagorno-Karabakh ‘Clearly a Win for Moscow’

The Russian-brokered cease-fire that ended six weeks of fighting means soldiers on the ground—either as peacekeepers or as a vanguard of Putin’s latest garrison state.