2023

Why it matters, and how worried we should be about it.

The attacks hinder Russian warfighting, but Ukrainian leaders probably seek a more strategic impact.

Riyadh wants big concessions from Washington in exchange for normalizing ties with Israel. Biden should ask for big concessions in return.

The security of clean energy is easier to manage than the security of oil.

The challenges of holding a vote in wartime are both small and big—and often unexpected.

Claims about the territory’s spiritual status have been revealed to be fiction.

As coups spread across the region, insecurity is growing—and international military involvement could make it worse.

One department now oversees everything from religion to winter sports to influence operations.

The Biden administration has been laying the groundwork for a big meeting with Xi Jinping.

If U.S. military aid falls short, more Ukrainians will die, officials in Kyiv say.

The inauspicious return of the Cold War strategy of “Pactomania.”

The Inflation Reduction Act is Washington’s boldest climate policy ever—but still woefully insufficient.

Bavaria is Germany’s stereotypical idyll—and now a herald of its future turmoil.

Inside the world of China’s richest players.

Thirty-three years after reunification, the country’s wounds are rawer than many would like to admit.

A new book argues countries are de-globalizing yet again. But was there ever such a thing as globalism to begin with?

Mustafa Nayyem fights to rebuild Ukraine.

Thirty years of the peace process has left us with less land and fewer rights.

Test yourself on the week of Sept. 23: France makes moves in Niger, Egypt sets a date for presidential elections, and Armenians flee Nagorno-Karabakh.

Washington and Moscow care a lot about some post-Soviet conflicts—but are largely ignoring others.

“Pick your calamity,” said one former top U.S. diplomat.

Sen. Bob Menendez’s indictment will shape the future of Congress’s foreign policy.

Why Biden’s solidarity with autoworkers is globally unprecedented.

Washington’s key diplomatic assets have become a political bargaining chip.

Libyan authorities invited journalists to cover the floods. Their window of welcome quickly closed.

But only some countries have turned up their climate ambition.

While Washington sits idly by, the region is on the brink of falling into Tehran’s orbit.

Austin touts U.S. as best alternative to Russia and China during visit.

Geopolitical provocateurs can cause serious diplomatic headaches.

World leaders are betting big on clean hydrogen. How much of it is hype?

Legislation authorizing the 2003 war is still on the books—and alarmingly open-ended.

Presidents, officials, and candidates tend to fall into six camps that don’t follow party lines.

The Biden administration has refrained from issuing a strong statement about allegations that the Indian government was involved in the assassination of a Sikh activist.

The historian with a million Substack subscribers describes how Americans can hit reset.

Data and accountability mechanisms can encourage states to avoid their worst impulses.

Brussels must take harsher measures against ruling parties in Budapest and Warsaw if it’s serious about upholding democratic norms.

Moscow’s deal with Pyongyang for more artillery rounds will fill Russian gaps—but likely not turn the tables in Ukraine.

Ukrainians differ on what would keep their nation safe from Russia.

Today, there are more terror groups in existence, in more countries around the world, and with more territory under their control than ever before.

Running for reelection, the Polish government is flailing in every direction to keep its populist credibility.

As the country marks 63 years of independence, insecurity and corruption continue to drive highly educated Nigerians to live and work abroad.

A much-lauded pledge to decarbonize needs funding.

Chaos in Congress jeopardizes Biden’s efforts to re-up ties with Micronesia, Palau, and the Marshall Islands.

One year after an uprising over women’s rights, the government has passed a harsh new hijab law.

Beijing’s censorship has pernicious effects on artists and educational institutions—but abandoning all cultural ties would do more harm than good.

Historian Heather Cox Richardson charts the roots of 21st-century disinformation—and how American democracy began to falter.

Local officials are inflexible about implementing Beijing’s orders.

As the country’s water reserves run low, tensions are running high.

Libyans, among others, are sick of the Russian mercenaries.

Congressional performance artists are holding U.S. foreign policy hostage.

Global powers are turning to it—with mixed success.

It may be in their own self-interest.

A sweeping new history of the country focuses primarily on elites, rather than the grassroots movements that overturned apartheid.

A new inquiry may expose Beijing’s reach in Ottawa.

Conservationists face off against farmers in a familiar man-versus-nature conflict.

Poor global and domestic governance made a foreseeable and preventable disaster in Derna a catastrophe.

Adam Tooze answers listener questions about inflation.

Moscow’s war in Ukraine has created an opening for Washington as a new great game heats up

Trudeau’s accusations suggest New Delhi’s intelligence operatives could lead it down a dark path.

Implying China mostly uses ethnically Chinese assets is both wrong and dangerous.

Warsaw’s strategic role in Europe is too important for Washington to ignore.

Netanyahu wants a normalization deal with the Saudis, but his hard-right coalition partners will undermine his plans.

At the United Nations, Lula makes the case for Brazil.

The idea of emerging power centers is popular but wrong—and could lead to serious policy mistakes.

The ethical calculations are less clear than you might think.

He’s not the same as the old boss.

A recent book makes the case for collaboration in an increasingly competitive industry.

The Indus Waters Treaty was created to avoid conflict. To confront the climate crisis, it must evolve.

The United Nations has given the international community the greenlight to punish Sri Lanka for torture. Congress has taken it.

I helped negotiate the Trump-Kim meeting. Real peace is still possible.

Ahead of a presidential election, debate in Buenos Aires reveals the mounting challenges of multi-alignment.

How the European Commission president has prepared for a possible second term.

NATO, China, Russia, and regional powers all want closer ties to a stable West African nation with crucial energy supplies and a strategically valuable location.

Washington must lean on Abu Dhabi to halt its support for Hemeti’s RSF.

The Camp David trilateral summit produced results—but they might not last.

Robert Fico is anti-Europe, pro-Russia, and could take back his seat as prime minister in this month’s snap elections. 

Both nations are championed by Washington but under threat from revanchism.

Beijing’s extensive infrastructure projects don’t seem to be translating into political clout.

Beijing’s global maritime operations double as intelligence-gathering outposts.

Another crackdown is targeting Black Africans seeking to enter the EU.

Ukraine’s president made an impassioned plea at the opening of the U.N. General Assembly to bring wrongdoers—such as Russia—to justice.

U.S. military support for Kyiv continues, but political resistance means no long-range fire.

Russia’s war in Ukraine has left Moscow insecure elsewhere.

Increasingly, poor countries are saying to the rich that your priorities won’t mean more to us until ours mean much more to you.

World leaders need to care about fish as much as they do about semiconductors.

The actual number could be more than double the current Western estimate.

Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s assassination has created a diplomatic crisis.

The Europeans have far more to lose than the United States from curbing ties.

And it should stop trying.

The EU is still trying to rekindle the nuclear deal—for now.

Orban just wants the Swedes to kiss the ring. Turkey might still be a problem.

Recent strides in chipmaking and artificial intelligence show Beijing’s post-export control world taking shape. 

The USAID administrator says U.S. contributions to the U.N. are at a “high watermark.”

The supreme leader learned what not to do from the Shah.

Unusually virulent weather and poor infrastructure have brought hell to eastern Libya.

Fear of Chinese influence must not take precedence over protecting democracy.

Tens of thousands of Afghans are stuck in immigration limbo—or still hiding under Taliban rule.

Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield on reforming the world’s biggest multilateral organization.

Beijing’s representatives are always scared they could be the next to vanish.

Russian disinformation has bewitched the far right and the far left.

Embedded with U.S. forces in the Pacific, I saw the dilemmas of deterrence firsthand.

The United States tried to use Vietnamese beliefs to terrify enemy soldiers.

Their recent summit showcased just how transactional the Russia-North Korea relationship has become.

All eyes were on Erdogan, but now Orban has found an excuse to be outraged and delay ratification.

Test yourself on the week of Sept. 9: An earthquake devastates Morocco, Kim Jong Un leaves Pyongyang for a key summit, and a French official is arrested abroad.

Adam Tooze answers listener questions on China.

The Chinese navy and maritime militia are using water cannons, laser dazzlers, and harassing tactics to try to push smaller nations out of the area.

As another multilateral forum issued a watered-down statement, Russia and North Korea met to deepen military ties.

An outbreak of Arab-Kurdish violence threatens to upset the delicate balance that kept the Islamic State and other U.S. adversaries at bay.

While international backers of Pinochet’s 1973 takeover increasingly admit blame, Chile’s resurgent far right is bringing defense of dictatorship back into the mainstream.

The bloc’s divide over China pushes members to go their own way.

Rahul Gandhi is trying—and mostly failing—to replicate Narendra Modi’s rock-star status among Indians abroad.

No one man should have all that power, U.S. lawmakers say.

Force won’t get to the root of the country’s crisis. But smart monetary policy will.

Elected officials, not electorates, are the primary barrier to redistributive policies that would benefit the world’s poorest countries.

A deeply flawed document violates basic human rights.

Economists are rethinking East Asia’s “miracle” as the Washington Consensus falters.

Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu describes his country’s efforts to deter a Chinese invasion.

Not a whole lot. But from Russia’s war to climate change and the global south, changes are afoot.

There is no alternative to slowly and methodically reducing Russian forces in Ukraine.

A celebrated health program relies on the labor of mistreated women.

The region’s four major countries have all forfeited Washington’s trust.

“If you’re on a Russian naval ship, you’re not safe anywhere in the Black Sea,” said one retired U.S. admiral.

The son of Cambodia’s long-serving prime minister will face challenges to his leadership from powerful political families.

Riyadh’s forces are killing defenseless Ethiopian migrants at its border, and Washington and its allies don’t seem to care.

After cornering the market on heroin, they’ve pivoted to a quicker and more profitable alternative.

And what it means for future negotiators.

How the extended Bongo family ousted a president but maintained its control of the country.

Over the past two years, China has enacted some of the world’s earliest and most sophisticated rules for AI.

Pyongyang has given up on normalizing relations with Washington.

Inertia and rivalries are producing a dangerous breakdown of multilateralism.

Foreign Policy's Fall 2023 Issue: Multilateralism is at a dead end, but powerful blocs are getting things done.

How the United States can rejuvenate the global institutions it created.

Small coalitions are a smart alternative to cumbersome multilateralism and formal alliances.

The bond has been decades in the making, but Russia’s war in Ukraine has tightened their embrace.

But the bloc’s future could look very different from its past.

India will tout the meeting as a victory, but the bloc remains deeply divided.

Russia needs weapons for Ukraine. North Korea is looking for a quid pro quo.

Even if a formal U.S.-Japan-South Korea pact is unlikely, tighter coordination is unavoidable.

The United States’ and Canada’s chief cyberdefenders talk adversaries and AI.

The world’s largest ship-owning nation is profiting from the sale of aging vessels, while enabling Moscow’s sanctions evasion.

And what it might mean for Modi.

As a new book shows, it’s not always about strategy.

The semiconductor and its near-divine creation story.

Conformism and acquiescence have a long tradition in a culture of chaos and repression.

An adventurous book explores an unknown world.

Test yourself on the week of Sept. 2: A new development in Guatemala’s election, China’s charm offensive, and African leaders’ call to the international community.

The group needs to embrace new ideas and more inclusive leadership.

A vital regional river can be a route for U.S. diplomacy.

Reflections of a career-long public policy professor at a time of global upheaval.

The United States has committed to keeping the peace but isn’t doing enough to stop the war.

Next year’s near-simultaneous elections and a spiral of escalatory rhetoric spell danger, but there is a way out.

Moscow’s regular spies have been expelled. Their kill squads are still active.

His foundation is shifting away from Europe, while his own approach to China has hardened.

China has a fifth of the world’s population but just 9 percent of its arable land—and that bit is increasingly underwater.

A trendy idea among GOP candidates would fail, just as it did in Colombia.

Princeton University’s G. John Ikenberry on alliances and the new world order.

Putin’s weaponry runs on advanced electronic components obtained from a hidden international market.

Erdogan’s economic gambles created an inflation mess. Can his U-turn fix what’s broken? 

As the economy declines, the CCP leans heavily on the army.

Armenia turns toward West after accusing Russia of failing as a partner.

“We are competing with each other in what has become a pure rat race.”

How the Institute For the Study of War became the media’s go-to source for tracking the Russian invasion.

To withstand threats from China’s economic troubles, Xi stays focused on security.

It’s time for Washington to see through the Kremlin’s mind games.

Policy mistakes have mired the country in “Xi-flation.”

Elections might reshape a political landscape marked by corruption and violence.

A collective security bloc suddenly looks more plausible—never mind the denials.

A parliamentary inquiry into an alleged 2012 murder by British soldiers is causing a diplomatic crisis for the U.K. government.