History

Social scientists helped win World War II by judging enemy morale. But in Afghanistan, the U.S. kept getting it wrong.

Attempts to explain Berlin’s militarism tells us something about how analysts approach Beijing.

President Kais Saied has broken a 65-year taboo.

Americans are still using the lens of a half century-old conflict.

Baku is attempting to assert sovereignty through force and ethnic cleansing while denying Armenians the right to self-determination.

What an ancient citadel can teach us about Afghanistan’s past—and its potential future.

From Kabul to Kolkata, South Asian heirs of partition can draw inspiration from their history to chart a sustainable future.

Beijing recognizes promoting human rights and democracy is an ideological challenge. So should Washington.

Look at what happened with the Soviet threat in the Cold War.

From piracy to the Ever Given, colonialism left hard scars.

A new biography paints a portrait of a president who made vast progress on policy—and failed at smoke-and-mirrors PR.

How Soviet artists evaded censors to create their own visions of Tolkien.

Robert Kaplan’s selective reading of history bolsters proponents of a centralized state while ignoring the legitimacy of federalists’ demands.

Chinese history shows what happens when an old system loses its force.

The nation’s poverty and chaos has been shaped by Washington for decades.

The country seems on the verge of falling apart. Here’s why it won’t.

The 50th anniversary of the landmark Cold War conference is inspiring a renewal for today’s world.

In “Geniuses at War,” David A. Price convincingly recounts a heroic and tragic tale.

Why is there no Rooseveltian school of foreign policy? American past and future greatness is unthinkable without it.

The nationalist leader laid out a prescient path—but his hopes of democracy are far off.