2021

After 9/11, Biden embraced the idea that U.S. troops should leave the country better than how they found it. Now, as president, he’s withdrawing them regardless.

A weekly international news quiz from Foreign Policy.

The country can’t contain insurgent movements until it has a comprehensive national plan for tackling them.

Washington wants to reclaim climate leadership and get other major countries to ramp up ambitions.

But will he really end the United States’ other open-ended conflicts?

After making the right call on withdrawal, the U.S. president better get ready for second-guessing.

The way we talk about climate change and our effect on the planet is all wrong—and increasingly dangerous.

China was the global winner of the coronavirus disaster—until the United States beat the odds.

In its new defense and foreign-policy posture, the country is no longer trying to punch above its weight.

As the United States leaves Afghanistan, the question of troops in the Middle East to support the Afghan mission looms large.

Rocky Brazil-U.S. diplomacy on protecting the rainforest approaches a pivotal moment.

Boris Johnson shouldn’t shy away from global leadership and the morally driven approach that protected Kosovars and Iraqi Kurds in the 1990s.

Veteran diplomat Nasser al-Qudwa could prompt a realignment within Palestinian politics.

Biden’s withdrawal announcement is meant to end a 20-year war, but Washington has been dragged back into conflicts before.

The country is imploding under America’s watch.

The Biden administration takes a novel, broad-brush approach to Russia’s nefarious activity.

Experts and former diplomats want to see Biden pick up the pace on nominations to better compete with China on the world stage.

A U.S. operation targeting Indian claims has drawn unnecessary outrage.

Chief negotiator Robert Malley begins to forge a compromise with both Iran and hard-liners at home.

The United States hadn’t accomplished its goals in 20 years. The next few weren’t going to make much of a difference.

Beijing’s own words and actions highlight the intent to end the Uyghurs as a people.

Conservative Guillermo Lasso will take office as an isolated president with a weak mandate, tasked with restoring faith in the country's institutions.

Both sides have leverage but have been reluctant to use it.

Pulling out all U.S. troops is the administration’s risky plan to pressure Kabul and the Taliban to make peace.

With troops to depart on Sept. 11, the next five months are critical for any chance of peace.

Plans for a global pandemic treaty don’t solve the problem of China’s refusal to cooperate.

Oscar-nominated “Minari” is about flowering in the United States—with the aid of our elders.

In Eastern European countries that have accepted the Russian vaccine, destabilization has followed.

Making nice after an alleged coup attempt obscures serious challenges, including water scarcity, a refugee crisis, and unhelpful neighbors.

Western democracies look the other way as a dictatorial ally in the war on terror holds another election marred by violence and intimidation.

Japan’s prime minister visits Washington at a time when, thanks to Chinese aggressiveness, U.S.-Japan relations are critical.

Local community projects are already powering parts of London and could pave the way for a green transition.

This week’s attack on an Iranian enrichment facility has improved the country’s negotiating position.

Syrian government is using aid deliveries as a weapon, State Department reports.

The move will finally end the United States’ longest war.

The country’s rural Dalits are already exploited—and know it can get worse.

There’s much more evidence of the monarch’s poor governance than a foreign conspiracy against him.

Muslims need their own nationwide party, he believes. And he’s going to build it.

Loyalist fears that Boris Johnson is abandoning them have sparked a wave of violence that could endanger the Good Friday Agreement.

Unless it changes tack, the administration is about to make bad situations even worse.

Trump gutted the programs that helped aid and place migrants. Now Biden is left with a mess.

India is a warning about unintended consequences for those looking to regulate Big Tech in the United States.

Russia’s recent aggression along its border shows why Kyiv needs decisive action from the alliance.

Most solar panels come from China, and using them to fuel a clean energy transition risks reliance on Uyghur slave labor in Xinjiang.

Decentralizing power can be key to long-term peace.

It’s more likely to inflame nationalist sentiments than change anything on the ground.

A rich and strong nation can pay for its own military.

Career diplomat Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley will be tasked with reversing the department’s record of big promises and little results.

Let India buy its weapons from Moscow. The real strategic threat is Beijing.

Just like Roosevelt, Biden must show that government still works.

What the new president really thinks about the military—and what the military really thinks about him.

A cycle of deadlocked elections has left the country without a functioning administration—and a foreign policy set on autopilot.

Janet Yellen’s proposal has all but zero chance of success.

Islamophobia has spread far beyond the persecuted Uyghur minority.

Wesley Morgan’s “The Hardest Place” is embedded reporting at its finest.

But 50 years after independence, an authoritarian turn casts a shadow over the country’s future.

China is governed by a totalitarian regime. Why is that so hard to say?

Troop buildup near Ukraine’s border is the largest since 2014.

Quiet negotiations with Berlin can do what economic coercion can’t.

A close reading of the philosophical career, and influence, of France’s most ridiculed public intellectual.

A new book explains why some nations rise and others don’t.

Disasters usually come with falling birth rates. But this time, they might not recover unless governments take action now.

Elections in May will be the first since 2006—a remarkable but risky gambit.

Jake Sullivan, Biden’s “once-in-a-generation intellect,” is facing a once-in-a-generation challenge.

“None of the above” is a popular vote in Ecuador and Peru, spelling legitimacy troubles.

Pro-engagement politicians are aging out of the Liberal Democratic Party.

Existing conflicts with ethnic groups add fuel to the fire.

The United Kingdom needs to prepare for future climate migrants rather than obsessing over asylum-seekers.

Talon’s procedural reforms have hollowed out fair elections and are a master class in entrenching autocracy.

Biden wants to rebuild relationships, but old friends aren’t so sure.

Moscow and Damascus have evaded all accountability, but Biden can build a coalition to change that.

Rather than taking Obama-era policies as a baseline, Biden needs to start from scratch.

This weekend’s vote will deepen the pandemic-ravaged country’s impasse.

It’s been a difficult and dizzying few months for Turkey—which is just the way the president likes it.

But the Biden administration still faces an unreliable ally in Duterte.

The U.N. dials up the pressure campaign against Myanmar’s putschists.

A survivor of regime atrocities explains why the international community must act.

Tangled questions of Asian identity need answers that aren’t defined by U.S. terminology alone.

Letting culture wars drive debate about “laïcité” obscures similarities between France and the United States.

As Netanyahu forms his government, the parallels between the politics that led to a strike on Iraq’s nuclear facility and those that could result in targeting Iran today are clear.

Former foes have found a common enemy in the TPLF. Will it lead beyond battlefield cooperation?

The pandemic’s impact shows growth is an arbitrary target.

The Navy’s favorite tool in Asia is deeply flawed.

The West’s economic orthodoxy of the past 40 years has been shaken by the pandemic—but the fight isn’t nearly over yet.

Many in Beijing realize a declining international reputation won’t help the country achieve its goals.

Peter Dutton stopped the refugee boats. His next job is stopping Beijing’s maritime militia.

Claims that the rivalry is purely geopolitical don’t hold water.

In both the U.S. and EU, antitrust and regulatory efforts against Facebook, Google, and Amazon are gaining traction. But no one’s about to break them up.

Washington promised to bring liberal democracy to Kabul. It created a bloated and ineffective sector of artificial NGOs instead.

The country says it wants to pivot from hard power to economic power, but its economy begs to differ.

WHO has no power to demand openness or independently confirm data at present.

Waning immunity, new virus variants—India’s sharp surge could be caused by any number of alarming factors.

Beating the pandemic has made the government and people overly complacent about China.

In Lebanon’s absurd economy, money’s value depends on whom you ask.

Oscar-nominated “The Mole Agent” is a film noir take on life in a Chilean nursing home.

Wealthy countries love to celebrate immigrant success stories, but they are letting many potentially productive citizens fall through the cracks.

Is Russia testing the waters or just testing Biden?

Both Washington and the Australian public want more sanctions on China.

To save its approval ratings, the Kremlin might be better focusing its energy elsewhere.

A middle path, with a greater role for India, is still possible—and preferable to either extreme.

Private equity’s power may eliminate promotion and relegation.

Environmentalists’ intent on saving the planet by protecting natural habitats are creating human disasters of their own.

Knowledge-sector jobs are heading to Eastern Europe, and the consequences could remake the EU.

Walter Isaacson explores the future of gene editing. But that future is already here, and it’s more than a bit scary.

A spat at Mercosur’s 30th birthday marked a low point for regional cooperation.

Only three top State Department officials have been allowed to travel abroad. That’s no way to preserve U.S. interests.

Beijing is making moves to ensure regional dominance in Southeast Asia and oil supplies from the Middle East. It could be shooting itself in the foot.

U.S. diplomacy is back in West Africa—but the United States is also back to its old counterterrorism playbook.

Establishing an inclusive reform process could end the country’s stalemate between unitarists and ethnonationalists.

Russia still hasn’t recovered from its own trauma.

The U.S. treasury secretary and the Italian prime minister have spent decades shaping this economy. But can they control what comes next?

The latest poorly defined buzzword in Washington is leading pundits and policymakers down a dangerous path.

When it comes to Alexei Navalny and Aung San Suu Kyi, we can’t have it both ways.

With media bans and treason charges, well-financed conspiracy peddlers are being shut down.

The Caesar Act isn’t hurting Assad; it’s harming civilians.

An understaffed agency vital to U.S. security desperately needs a bigger budget.

Human rights advocates say the move is long overdue.

Outcomes, not optics, should be the measure of U.S. policy in Europe.

The Kremlin foe’s health has deteriorated dramatically since being transferred to a brutal penal colony.

The new country would scurry to join NATO and the EU.

The pandemic has proved the viability of ESG metrics, and the business world may be changed for good.

The question is who gets to write the codes—and whether the United States will live up to its own.

Biden should avoid the treaty trap set by Moscow and Beijing.

Slovakia’s prime minister has resigned over a secret delivery of Moscow’s Sputnik V as Brussels struggles to keep the EU united.

As protesters disappear, Bobi Wine’s opposition is demanding answers from the Museveni regime.

The Suez Canal blockade is a reminder that sea freight still keeps the global economy running—and leaders and consumers ignore it at their peril.

As China, the United States, and other nations roll out their COVID-19 cures, it’s hard to know where to get the jab.

With election results deadlocked, an Arab-led party is seen as a possible swing faction.

As Sri Lanka’s human rights record worsens, the world body tries to hold the country accountable for past crimes.

Two decades of progress are threatened by the Taliban return—and a hasty U.S. exit.

Off-the-shelf air power changes the battlefield of the future.

Four steps Washington can take to facilitate a lasting end to the conflict.

Washington should bypass Bolsonaro and open a direct dialogue on Amazon deforestation with local leaders in regions hit hard by COVID-19.

Don’t listen to the activists. Millions of Indian farmers will benefit from Modi’s new laws.

The United States won’t be a global leader in climate change until it works with African nations.

It’s not clear who’s in command when things go wrong.

There are few better ways for the country to reclaim its credibility and moral authority.

The shared experience of military violence has shifted political objectives among the ethnic majority.

Director Skye Fitzgerald’s Oscar-nominated documentary “Hunger Ward” chronicles Yemeni health care workers as they wrestle with famine and violence.

The long-awaited report is unlikely to quell concerns about China’s influence over the investigation.

Beijing claims they are fishing vessels. The data shows otherwise.

Facing new coronavirus variants and threats of backsliding, the world's effort to protect its most vulnerable populations must accelerate

Europe’s leaders want autonomy to strike deals with Beijing, but public outcry over the Uyghurs is forcing their hand.

From FP Analytics: A country-by-country assessment of government responses to the pandemic.

His call to wage a global war for freedom echoes the dawn of the Cold War.

Why has the administration been so half-hearted on a malign Russian influence project?

Member states are shirking responsibility for the system they designed—even when they’re the primary beneficiaries.

At 73, Malaysia’s embattled opposition leader has had the top job snatched away from him every time.

Coastal cities need to experiment with different strategies to boost resilience.

Whether you support Xi or Trump, sneering at progressives is a shared hobby.

The United States needs a game plan for a continent that’s home to two-thirds of the world’s population and its biggest rival.

“To platform or to deplatform” is the wrong debate.

Republican districts stand to benefit most from the economic windfall that a revived JCPOA would bring.

Americans have to learn to see promise, not threat, ahead again.

Two new books examine how an isolated state managed to expand its diplomatic horizons.

Since they were labeled an extremist group in 2017, more than 400 have been charged or convicted.

Biden’s push for gender equality is a huge change from Trump, but experts stop short of calling it a feminist foreign policy.

How the German government accelerated the 20th century’s economic march toward neoliberalism.

An Oscar-nominated film exposes the crimes of Srebrenica at a time when the perpetrators are still celebrated in Serbia and beyond.

If Twitter doesn’t remove content Putin dislikes, he’ll ban it. But that will hurt him more than the platform.

The Biden administration rebuffed European pleas to lift some sanctions in its first weeks in office.

Corrupt local elites thwarted some engagement efforts of the past decade, Biden’s new special envoy wrote.

Netanyahu’s focus on maintaining ultra-Orthodox support as the pandemic raged didn’t help him win, but it has left deep scars.

Trump tied American jobs to endless wars in the Middle East. Biden should link them to renewed diplomacy.

In announcing it would prioritize travelers who had received Chinese-made vaccines, Beijing sparked outrage in countries where those aren’t available.

Long sidelined by Islamabad, Moscow, and Beijing, New Delhi is finally taking a seat at the table.

The decline of Israeli democracy holds lessons for the United States.

The migrants who fled the Syrian war now want real membership in their new home countries.

The country is on the cusp of a second liberation—one that would end its relative isolation.

There are no good choices, but staying on is the worst.

China’s elite are nervous about the coming succession crisis around Xi Jinping.