Middle East & Africa

From powerbrokers in the ’90s to pariahs today.

Governments, civil society, and the private sector are reimagining development away from external interventions.

The West’s aid model was always a mirage. It’s time for a realistic alternative.

With concrete steps, Washington can keep Syria’s future on track.

The unspeakable suffering of Palestinians has echoes of the persecution of the Jewish community.

For years, the group has relied on the perception that it is untouchable.

The clock is ticking for a new nuclear deal with Iran.

The Wagner Group is no more but Moscow is peddling the same false promises.

The declaration comes amid a downturn in the diamond market and U.S. foreign aid cuts.

As Lebanon moves to confront the country’s most dangerous militia, U.S. support will be vital.

Keeping the Pretoria Agreement in a comatose state should not be seen as an end in itself.

Critics should be talking instead about regime change.

Israel is directly targeting media workers, rights groups warn.

Is Trump hurting military readiness?

France, Germany, and the U.K. ran out of patience with Tehran and are bringing back previously halted U.N. measures.

Former Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on the 12-day war, Western sanctions, and a pathway to nuclear talks.

One of the last remaining counters to the president’s power tries to fight back.

The government and army are taking back their own country.

It’s time for Washington to shift from patron to partner.

The Trump administration is throwing away a chance to end HIV worldwide.

The unfinished line traces a fractured region still beset by competing imperial projects.

China and the U.S. are competing for influence in the troubled region.

The U.S. president says it’s six (or maybe seven), but reality is a bit murkier.

As Qatari-brokered talks are suspended, fighting is intensifying in eastern Congo.

Former Iranian foreign minister outlines path for diplomacy.

Despite the hype, much of Ankara’s new military technology remains in development and untested.

Netanyahu’s plan to seize Gaza is a catastrophe for all.

International condemnation is not a problem as long as the Israeli government’s long-term objectives are advanced.

Mass evictions and violence at World Heritage Sites around the world have sparked backlash against the U.N. body.

Both countries’ strategic calculus suggests it will be even more violent.

After almost two years of war, Israel is feeling the growing weight of governmental opprobrium.

Everything we know—and don’t know—about what’s really happening on the ground.

Germany halts arms exports as more countries mark a shift in opinion on Israel’s offensive in Gaza.

Kwame Nkrumah’s life demonstrates that the end of colonial rule in Africa is central to modern history.

After five straight years of drought, the country is running dry.

Everything has changed in the region, and nothing is different.

Recent announcements by France, Britain, and Canada are mostly performative.

Peace between Rwanda and Congo is good news, but more pressure is needed to make it stick.

Netanyahu is seeking to remake the Middle East by force.

Disputed territory between the United Arab Emirates and Iran could unlock a nuclear solution.

After more than a decade of exile, locals are finally coming home.

Abuja’s rejection of Washington’s third-country deportations should be a wake-up call.

A newscast showing starving children prompted sympathy—and criticism.

The sudden U.S. attack on Iran could complicate China’s Taiwan calculus.

A U.N. conference tries to revive hope for a way out of the Israel-Palestine conundrum.

Refugees returning to Afghanistan face economic hardship and uncertain futures.

Erdogan’s negotiations with the PKK seek peace and possibly pluralism without democracy. Will they succeed?

A Qatari-backed project near a coral reef pits economics against environmentalism.

Qatar and the Gulf chose to prioritize peace in the aftermath of Iranian strikes. Tehran shouldn’t take that for granted.

How Israel’s strikes reshaped Iran’s political future.

Examples from non-Western history offer more promising precedents for the end of U.S. hegemony.

Iran doesn’t need to rebuild its damaged facilities to sprint for a nuclear weapon.

As Gaza faces more death and starvation, criticism of Israel is needed more than ever.

Picking and choosing between Druze leaders will prove counterproductive.

More than 500,000 Afghans were driven out of Iran in 15 days, adding to the country’s humanitarian emergency.

Oil sanctions have failed to deliver results with Iran and Russia. It would be a mistake to try them with China.

Despite military wins, fear remains a key driver of Israeli policy.

Africans say that the United States is using the continent as a “dumping ground.”

“Trump is not someone you want to have a direct confrontation with.”

The Israeli government could fall soon, triggering new elections.

U.S. pressure on Israel and Turkey could help stabilize Syria.

Donald Trump has the support of his base for a muscular foreign policy.

As Houthi attacks target Indian sailors, the Indian Navy has a chance to step up.

International institutions need to start treating water as a national security flashpoint.

Impunity for abetting war crimes weakens U.S. democracy.

Recent Israeli strikes in Syria undermine Trump’s push for normalization.

Syrians are drawn to Damascus to rebuild their country—and their lives.

Donald Trump wants to give Syria “a chance at greatness,” but his assault on U.S. foreign aid threatens to undo any progress achieved.

Public resentment spikes as the death toll rises amid anti-government protests.

A concerted diplomatic push is needed to allay a deepening humanitarian catastrophe.

A former military dictator and late convert to democracy, Nigeria’s two-time ruler lacked the discipline to enact transformational change.

No one wants a long war, and doing nothing was no longer an option.

The state of the China- and Russia-backed bloc in the Trump era.

Both admirers and critics see Iran’s Pahlavi dynasty as the embodiment of pro-Western modernization. But was it?

The 1955 conference’s value-based approach to international affairs offers a model for middle powers today.

Draconian steps used against activists risk weakening real anti-terrorism measures.

The Trump administration’s analysis of the war with Iran is an exercise in pure narrative.

Tom Friedman on the region’s big shifts—and how the rest of the world sees it.

Pushing too hard for a peace deal could come at the expense of more pragmatic action against shared threats.

The world’s richest man takes his political evolution another step further. 

Washington would struggle to secure dangerous materials, technologies, and expertise.

Even when transitions end in elections, the goal is not to exit power but rather to entrench it.

The nations attending the meeting may have small GDPs, but they are rich in critical minerals.

By making Gaza unlivable, Netanyahu has laid the groundwork for ethnic cleansing.

Don’t let the attention economy distract you from recognizing the catastrophe in Gaza.

A bomb with uranium would be easy enough for Tehran to make—but may not make sense to use.

The United States and Israel are speeding up the collapse of nonproliferation.

A recent U.S.-brokered agreement can only ensure stability if it does not reward Rwanda’s aggression.

The 1981 strike on an Iraqi reactor jolted Baghdad’s nuclear program into high gear.

The regime has been pushed to the edge of strategic pivot.

From a Salvadoran multiverse to queer life in contemporary Nigeria.

A demonstrably unpopular regime maintains total control down to the neighborhood level.

Washington, New Delhi, Tokyo, and Canberra make common cause on common ground.

In D.C. visit, Netanyahu is expected to toast Trump for U.S. attack on Iran.

The war with Iran shows why hopes for energy independence are inadequate.

Success in the Middle East could be a template for a new approach to Russia’s war.

He’s hoping the Iran war will erase the stain of Oct. 7.

Millions of Sudanese refugees risk falling deeper into hunger as funding dries up.

Turning away partners with a clear preference for American AI infrastructure creates a vacuum that China will fill.

Despite what it claims, Israel failed to achieve its goals in its latest war.