The Year in Review

A country that once seemed to hold great promise for peaceful democratization has descended into conflict. Here’s what could happen next.

Britain’s prime minister promised to take back control. When it comes to the coronavirus, he has lost it.

Citizens hungry for information turned to the media during the pandemic, but governments around the world used the crisis to restrict journalists.

From the tragedy of whistleblowers to imperiled nuclear talks to the State Department's struggle with diversity, here are some of our articles that had an outsized impact this year.

Here are five of our best pieces on how East Asia handled the pandemic.

A look back at our best essays on the onset of the coronavirus.

With much of the world in lockdown again, here are some of this year’s highlights to help you pass the time.

The United States was already fighting with China for influence at global organizations, but the pandemic made everything worse.

From Afghanistan to Mexico, and from Belarus to Cambodia, here’s the best photojournalism from a year that felt like a decade.

The continent thought it had the coronavirus beat—and had its guard down when it mattered most.

Turkey took its expansionist vision to new heights in 2020—but with a battered economy, growing opposition, and now U.S. sanctions, it’s not clear how long that can continue.

Russia started the year with political uncertainty, then cemented Putin’s future, and ended the year by poisoning the main opposition figure—and future relations with the Biden administration.