News Abroad

Barack Obama: Historian in Chief

by Robert Shaffer

How he is using history to bolster his case for the Iran deal.

The Strangest Odd Couple on the World Stage Today: Russia and Israel

by Jonathan Adelman and Joseph Szyliowicz

Despite their strained history, they’re able to work together.

Toward a National Strategy to Cope With a New World: Part 2

by William R. Polk

We must come to terms with the reality that we live in a multicultural, multinational world. Our assertion of uniqueness has been enormously expensive and counterproductive.

What the U.S. and Cuba Can Learn From the Past

by Stephen Chambers

Cuba’s been here before, but this time, it won’t be slavery that jump-starts the economy. It can be tourism.

We Need to Come to Terms with the Russian People’s Support Today of both Stalin and Putin

by Walter G. Moss

Any effective U.S. foreign policy must not just vilify leaders, whether Saddam Hussein or Putin, but recognize and try to understand why so many foreign citizens think differently than we do.

Coping with the Sense of Drift and Disorder in World Affairs, Part 1

by William R. Polk

Mistake after mistake after mistake marks our foreign policy record since World War II. These are the causes.

What’s Missing from the Debate About the Refugees in Calais Who Are Eager to Go to Britain

by Luke Reader

Put simply: for reasons of history, fairness, and responsibility, Britain should do more for them.

Post Mortem: Taliban Leader Mullah Omar

by Brian Glyn Williams

Omar said that giving up Osama bin Laden to the Americans would mean the end of Islam.

Why Have Germans Taken such a Hard Line with Greece?

by Louis A. Ferleger and Jonathan Zatlin

In part it’s because they learned the wrong lesson from the unification of East and West Germany.

The Backstory to U2’s Record of Activism

by Alan McPherson

How a rock band evolved to become the face of global activism.

China’s Building a New Silk Road. Should We Be Worried?

by Valerie Hansen

Just as China used the Silk Road to expand its sphere of influence in the past, it is doing exactly the same thing now.

5 Things You Should Know about the CIA’s Covert Drone Assassination Campaign

by Brian Glyn Williams

Compared with standard bombing, the current drone campaign is far more precise than any previous bombing campaign in history.

Understanding Russia

by Walter Laqueur

Russia may still be to some extent a riddle, but the mystery is not so much in what Russian leaders are doing and thinking, but the way they are misinterpreted by some circles in the West.

We Know Why Obama Changed US Policy Toward Cuba. But Why Did Cuba Change Its Policy Toward the US?

by Matt Jacobs

To understand the change we need to acknowledge that Castro has always followed a policy of “revolutionary pragmatism.”

This is One Reason the World Is on Fire

by Lawrence Davidson

Millions of people, Muslims, Jews and Christians and others not only still idealize a religiously imagined past, but want, in one way or another, to import that past into the present.

Wearing a Beard? Watch Out! You May Be Profiled

by Rebecca Herzig

Once upon a time, a beardless face defined otherness. Now a thick, full beard does. What happened?

Are Nuclear Arms Control and Disarmament Agreements of Any Value?

by Lawrence S. Wittner

What do they tell us about the Iran nuclear deal?

The Radical and Deep Insights of Pope Francis’s Environmental Encyclical

by Walter G. Moss

Many conservatives have criticized it, but it reflects religious values expressed through the ages by people of many religious faiths.

It’s Worse for Jews Now than It’s Been Since the 1930s and 1940s

by Edwin Black

An interview with the Anti-Defamation League’s Abraham Foxman, who’s retiring after 50 years service.

Their Father Was American. North Korea Won’t Let Them Go

by John Sweeney

The sad story of two brothers, now in their thirties, whose mother was kidnapped by North Korea.