Essay
List of Essay articles
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An illustration shows the back of a person wearing a graduation cap with a globe motif on it. A hand reaches in to move a locator pin on the top of the cap/map. So You Want to Work in International Affairs
A veteran practitioner’s 12 tips to land that first job.
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A person is silhouetted in front of a white high relief statue of Stalin with other figures around him. The Kremlin’s Factory of Resentment
A new history of the Cold War unwittingly exposes Russian distortions of the past.
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A person in a soldier's uniform carries the flag of imperial Japan outside of a shrine as people walk by in the background. When Will World War II End in Japan?
Silence on the official history of 1939 to 1945 has led to a flowering of creative interpretations.
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A man with dark hair in glasses and a coat. The Dreamers and Cynics of the New Turkey
A renowned director quietly probes life under Erdogan.
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Photos of two men speaking each shown as a negative color inside a red and blue circle. Kissinger, Brzezinski, and the Promise of Realism
A cynical realism resonates today, but there is a model for fusing power and values.
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Elite police and soldiers are silhouetted behind a Chinese flag. China Is Not Ready for Global Leadership
Pax Americana is dead, but Pax Sinica is nowhere in sight.
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An illustration shows a hand holding up a head-shaped hourglass in a Hamlet-esque pose. Inside the hourglass are sands enveloping the statue of liberty and other monuments. The End of Modernity
A crisis is unfolding before our eyes—and also in our heads.
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An illustration depicts historical moments from the past in the curtains of the Oval Office: Julius Caesar, the Cultural Revolution in China, and three American presidents. The room shows an empty chair at the Resolute Desk and a presidential seal on the rug. Why Compare the Present to the Past?
Thinking via historical analogy has become the preferred way to confront our anxieties.
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People use their phones to take a photo of the empty space on a wall of portraits. How Trump Will Be Remembered
No other president has made his time in office so nakedly about himself and his legacy.
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A woodcut style illustration depicts Donald Trump as Julius Caesar An American Caesar
Comparing two leaders, two millennia apart.
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An illustration shows a Nazi-uniformed hand holding a fountain pen that breaks the globe into spheres of influence. How a Nazi Jurist Captured Imaginations on the U.S. Left and Right
It’s Carl Schmitt’s world, and we’re all just living in it.
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An illustration shows Chairman Mao being driven in a car past a sea of red flags. In the foreground is Donald Trump in a similar pose driven in a golf cart. Is This an American Cultural Revolution?
Liberal critics charge Trump with creating a cult of personality not unlike Mao Zedong’s.
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A woodcut style illustration shows a George Washington's face low down on a dollar bill rolling his eyes. How Low Can the Dollar Go?
It took a decade for the U.S. economy to recover from Nixon. This time could be worse.
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An illustration depicts a lectern with a presidential eagle seal on it. Leaves fall off a branc in one of the eagle's talons. A Trump-like figure looms above. The Human Rights Presidency
Jimmy Carter made foreign policy feel moral again, but that era might be over.
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A woodcut-style illustration depicts Donald Trump on one end of a face card with Boris Johnson on the other. Both hold mirors. Ranking the Strongmen
In an era defined by vanity, the U.S. president outdoes all his populist peers.
