List of Theory articles
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The headquarters of ByteDance, the parent company of video sharing app TikTok, is seen in Beijing on Sept. 16, 2020. Banning TikTok Won’t Keep Your Data Safe
Pompous billionaires, authoritarian regimes, and opaque oligarchs are hoarding our data. Only an alternative online ecosystem will stop them.
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A man walks past portraits of former Chinese leaders Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, and Hu Jintao and current president Xi Jinping at Yan'an Revolutionary Memorial Hall in Yan'an, China, on Oct. 15, 2022. Xi Prefers Fleet Power to Street Protest
Nationalist protesters are no longer a staple of Chinese crisis diplomacy.
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In this black-and-white photo from 1984, Nicaraguan leader Daniel Ortega is seen in profile as he speaks to a crowd of reporters and citizens at an outdoor press conference. Ortega gestures with one open hand and holds a microphone in the other. Members of the press hold up cameras or jot in notebooks. Is Nicaragua’s Dictatorship Nearing Its End?
How the once-revolutionary Ortega regime may have destined itself to the dustbin of history.
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French President Emmanuel Macron holds an Olympic gold medal as he delivers a speech to representatives of stakeholders who helped organize and host the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, seen at the Élysée Palace in Paris on Aug. 12. France’s Quest for Olympic Glory
Ahead of the Paris Games, Macron invested heavily in efforts to boost elite sports. Did it pay off?
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Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un toast during a state visit in Pyongyang on June 19, in a photo distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik. The Anti-Authoritarian Handbook
Today’s autocrats have formed a global network. Those fighting them will have to do the same.
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A woman in a red dress and hat walks behind two soldiers wearing camouflage and U.N. berets as they approach a border crossing on a street in Nicosia, Cyprus, on a sunny day. The Island Stuck in Limbo
Fifty years after partition, a divided Cyprus somehow manages to get by.
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U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin as Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov looks on during a ceremony to receive credentials from newly appointed foreign ambassadors at the Kremlin in Moscow. Inside Putin’s Kremlin
John Sullivan, Washington’s former ambassador to Moscow, on how power works in Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and then-U.S. President Donald Trump attend a joint rally at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas, on Sept. 22, 2019. Can Modi’s BJP Go Global?
More contacts between the Indian and Western right could benefit both.
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The skyline looks hazy as the backdrop to a person riding a scooter. China Is Neither Collapsing Nor Booming
On a return to Shanghai, our columnist detects worries about the future—but also a steely determination that the country’s sheer size will see it advance in key areas.
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In this handout image released by the South Korean Defense Ministry, South Korean Navy's destroyer Yulgok Yi I (R) U.S. Navy's aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (C) and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force's Umigiri, (L) sail in formation during a joint naval exercise in international waters off South Korea's southern island of Jeju on Apr. 4, 2023 The U.S. Must Prepare to Fight China and North Korea at the Same Time
A conflict in Taiwan is likely to draw Pyongyang in—and the U.S. military isn’t ready for it.
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A black and white portrait of a man wearing a sweater with a collared shirt under it. James C. Scott Trampled Across Borders to Explain the World
The political scientist, anthropologist, and anarchist loved the global margins.
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A crowd marches forward; the man in the middle has blood on his shirt and appears to have a head injury. The Deep Roots of Bangladesh’s Crisis
How protests against a quota system turned into an uprising against Sheikh Hasina’s government.
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Chinese migrants wearing rain ponchos warm themselves near a fire after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Chinese Migrants Aren’t an Invading Army
Myths about “military-aged men” distract from a soft-power opportunity.
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Marchers, most of them women in heels, dresses, coats, and hats carry signs for the communist part as they walk down a street in New York. The Contradictions of America’s Communist Party
Its members were the country’s original illiberal democrats—before imploding into irrelevance.
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A man in an orange shirt is shown from the back walking past a metal fence with campaign posters. What to Know as France Goes to the Polls
FP’s essential stories on the French election.
