American leaders have failed to learn from the past and are staking the nation's health to competition with foreign adversaries instead of improvement of American lives.
A remarkable confluence of events and circumstances launched a cultural mania for ancient Egypt in Britain and the US with the 1922 discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun.
Despite the urgent need for global cooperation on the climate crisis, and significant instances of cooperation in the past, the leaders of the US and the People's Republic of China appear intent on pursuing a Cold War.
The Reagan-Gorbachev summit meetings that yielded the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty and established mutual weapons monitoring weren't expected to succeed, but offer hope that negotiations between Biden and Putin could advance progress toward needed mutual cybersecurity action.
The recent virtual American Conference for Irish Studies meeting convened scholars and diplomats to discuss challenges posed by Brexit and opportunities for cooperation between the United States, Northern Ireland, and the Republic.
Actor John Cena's blunder into the Taiwan-China controversy should be an opportunity for Americans to learn more about the history of this conflict and of an independent Taiwanese identity that has been shaped by Japanese colonization, Chinese nationalism, war, and the Communist revolution.
John Cena's recent social media kerfuffle over Taiwan reflects the legacy of Richard Nixon's acquiescence to a "One China" policy advanced by the People's Republic, in hindsight the worst error of his presidency.
Looking at the recent resurgence of armed conflict between Israel and Hamas as part of a project of settler colonialism clarifies the nature of the conflict, and suggests that the immediate cessation of eviction of Palestinians is essential for peace.
If the recent cease-fire between Israel and Hamas holds, many may be tempted to push for renewing a negotiated peace process. This is skipping the vital and difficult work of reconciliation that is necessary to a just peace.
Both Hamas and the Israeli right base their claims to Jerusalem on understandings of the city as shaped by the orientalist and segregationist values of British governors during the Mandate period, and not on the city's longer heterogenous and multicultural history. Peace activists look to that history as an example of coexistence.
While Berliners have incorporated the city's notorious wall into museums and public art, restoring the site of the Berliner Schloss of the Hohenzollerns and then the Palast der Republic of the East German government has been much more contentious. The Humboldt Forum has been criticized, but its design and reception exemplify the tensions inherent in democracy.
India's COVID crisis is being exacerbated by a health system that uses an anemic 3.5% of GDP. Continuities from the era of the British Raj, when powerful rural landowners went untaxed, are a big part of the problem.
A historian who advised the US military in Afghanistan and traveled extensively in the country warns that America's Afghan allies may pay a terrible price from Biden's proposed troop withdrawal.
The embrace of the far-right Vox party by Madrid's conservative coalition promises to drive the region's politics toward nativism, climate denialism, and reckless COVID policies.
Hedwig Richter's book "Democracy: A German Affair" has sparked controversy for its rejection of the idea that Germany has followed a "special path" to liberal democracy and catalyzed a broad debate about the role of historians in public reckoning with the crimes of the past.
Historical context suggests that Vladimir Putin's intentions toward Ukraine are pragmatic and comprehensible (whether one favors Russian objectives or not); a broader imagination and diplomatic engagement can do more to prevent open war than saber-rattling.
Nuclear-armed nations face a choice: to push ahead with a wasteful course that raises the risk of nuclear war, or to lead toward a world without nuclear weapons.
American policymakers must recognize the distinctly religious components of the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan, and learn from European wars of religion: the key to ending war is brokering a political agreement that protects religious diversity.
