List of History articles
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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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Two people are silhouetted in a shaft of light as they sit in chairs in a cafe. The Most Successful CIA Operation You’ve Never Heard of
How the agency’s program to circulate banned books helped take down the Iron Curtain.
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A large column looms over a small person standing atop a large field of rubble holding up a phone to take a photo. Life Returns to Palmyra
After more than a decade of exile, locals are finally coming home.
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A grid of book covers for 11 summer fiction releases. The Novels We’re Reading in August
The dog days of summer, from an 18th-century English village to modern-day Tbilisi.
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Two world leaders speak underneath a replica of a clay treaty. Pharaohs, Maharajas, and the Making of a Multipolar World
Examples from non-Western history offer more promising precedents for the end of U.S. hegemony.
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A grid showing the covers of 15 new book releases coming this summer. FP’s Books of the Summer
The biggest releases in foreign affairs, history, and economics.
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An illustration shows the legs and shoes of a person with either foot astride the opening of the Panama Canal. The legs are covered in the stars and stripes of the U.S. flag. A container ship is seen entering the canal. A Man, a Plan, and a Long History of Overplayed Hands
Trump did not invent hardball U.S. diplomacy with Panama. Then, as now, it is doomed to backfire.
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An up-close photo of Muhammadu Buhari speaking. Despite Good Intentions, Muhammadu Buhari Failed Nigeria
A former military dictator and late convert to democracy, Nigeria’s two-time ruler lacked the discipline to enact transformational change.
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Empress Farah Pahlavi in coronation attire with crown and robe, followed by attendants, during a royal ceremony in an ornate palace. Empress Farah Pahlavi and the Myth of the Secular Shah
Both admirers and critics see Iran’s Pahlavi dynasty as the embodiment of pro-Western modernization. But was it?
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A fan of U.S. President Donald Trump adjusts a cutout of Elon Musk at a “Trump-A-Palooza” event in Brevard, North Carolina. Third Parties in America Usually Fail. Can Elon Musk Change That?
The world’s richest man takes his political evolution another step further.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping attend the Victory Day military parade in Red Square in central Moscow on May 9. China Should Invite Trump to Its Military Parade
The 80th anniversary of the global victory over fascism offers a chance to change narratives.
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U.S. National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski speaks with U.S. President Jimmy Carter in the Oval Office on Jan. 21, 1977. Why Zbig Still Matters
Biographer Edward Luce on the life and legacy of former national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski.
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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.
