Excerpt
List of Excerpt articles
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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party gestures during a roadshow in support of the party's state assembly election party candidates in Varanasi on March 4. (Sanjay Kanojia/AFP/Getty Images) Is India’s Modi a Reformer or a Performer?
In the world’s biggest democracy, good politics often have nothing to do with good economics.
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Construction of the Faisal Mosque in the foothills of Margalla Hills of Islamabad, Pakistan, began in 1976 after a grant from Saudi King Faisal, whose name the mosque bears. (Muhammed Semih Ugurlu/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images) Extremism Is Riyadh’s Top Export
Saudi Arabia is fighting for a dangerous monopoly on Islamic thought.
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A U.S. Army military policeman stands guard in front of the stage as the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders perform for American forces in Baghdad as part of their military USO tour on Sept. 15, 2007. (John Moore/Getty Images) From Doughnut Girls to Den Mothers and Cheerleaders
The U.S. military has long relied on women to entertain the troops. Here’s how that’s slowly changing.
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Two Chechen fighters warm by the fire burning next to a house destroyed by Russian artillery in the center of Grozny, Jan. 15, 1995. ( Michael Evsafiev/AFP/Getty Images) The Making of a Chechen Hitman
Russia’s best killers learned their skills fighting Moscow.
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election_lead_smooth How to Steal an Election in Broad Daylight
Autocrats and counterfeit democrats have perfected the art of rigging polls to stay in power — without breaking any laws.
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An Israeli tank in the southern Gaza Strip on Sep. 1, 2005. (Abid Katib/Getty Images) The Israelis Who Prevented a War With Iran
Netanyahu came close to ordering airstrikes in 2010 — but was thwarted by his own security chiefs.
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Why Democracy Doesn’t Deliver
Endless elections, unqualified leaders, uninformed voters, and short-term thinking are impeding economic growth.
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A Chinese worker loads coal into a furnace on November 3, 2016 in Inner Mongolia, China. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images) China’s Zombie Firms Can’t Lurch Forever
As state-backed companies' debts mount, China faces an inevitable slowdown.
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The reflectors at the PS10 solar tower plant sit at Sanlucar la Mayor outside Seville on April 24, 2007 in Seville, Spain. (Denis Doyle/Getty Images) Can’t Stop the Shining
Solar power is the world’s most promising clean energy solution, but governments must abandon outdated policies for it to succeed.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin looks at a map in his country at his residence of Novo-Ogaryevo outside Moscow, on Aug. 11, 2006. (Dmitry Astakhov) Russia’s Clash With the West Is About Geography, Not Ideology
The Marshall Plan recognized the limits of U.S. power in Europe. To be successful, so must diplomacy with Moscow today.
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A Palestinian boy holds a bunch of plastic flowers as he plays on the rubble of assassinated Hamas interior minister Said Siam's apartment building during a Hamas rally in Jabalia, on January 20, 2009. Arab leaders today pledged "all forms of support for the reconstruction of Gaza" but failed to set up a specific fund for the war-battered Palestinian enclave, as they wound up a two-day summit. AFP PHOTO/PATRICK BAZ (Photo credit should read PATRICK BAZ/AFP/Getty Images) How Israel Won a War but Paid a High Moral Price
A decade of targeted assassinations has pushed the boundaries of Israel's laws and military ethics — and harmed its image across the globe.
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4511463557_4a37ceef6c_b The Secret History of Diplomats and Invisible Weapons
The alleged use of a “sound weapon” against U.S. Embassy officials in Cuba harks back to a Cold War medical mystery.
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sharon2 The Graveyard of Empires and Big Data
The Pentagon's secret plan to crowdsource intelligence from Afghan civilians turned out to be brilliant — too brilliant.
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Indian women wait in a queue for their turn to vote at a polling station in the Naini area on the outskirts of Allahabad during the fourth phase of Uttar Pradesh state assembly elections on February 23, 2017. Uttar Pradesh is home to over 200 million people -- more than the entire population of Brazil -- and polls in the battleground state are a bellwether of national politics. / AFP / SANJAY KANOJIA (Photo credit should read SANJAY KANOJIA/AFP/Getty Images) ‘If Money is Not Distributed, You Are Finished’
In India's contentious politics, it's impossible to avoid the smell of cash.
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TO GO WITH AFP STORY "China-politics-rights-Tiananmen" by Robert Saiget(FILES) This file photo taken on June 2, 1989 shows hundreds of thousands of Chinese gathering around a 10-metre replica of the Statue of Liberty (C), called the Goddess of Democracy, in Tiananmen Square demanding democracy despite martial law in Beijing. Families of those killed in the crushing of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests on June 2, 2010 demanded China end its silence and open a dialogue on the bloodshed. In an annual open letter, 128 members of the Tiananmen Mothers castigated the Communist Party government for ignoring its calls for openness on the crackdown that occurred June 3-4, 1989 and vowed never to give up their fight. (Photo by CATHERINE HENRIETTE/AFP/Getty Images) Could Mikhail Gorbachev Have Saved the Soviet Union?
The Soviet leader is remembered as the man who killed a superpower. But Gorbachev’s gambit on reforms could have worked -- if only he wasn't betrayed by the Communist Party.
