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How China Is Winning Friends and Influencing People
On the traffic-snarled streets of Hanoi, taxi drivers taking a break between rides watch Chinese microdramas—feature-length stories divided into addictive 90-second clips—on their phones. Some commuters zip past on Chinese-made Yadea scooters, while others sit comfortably removed from the noise, dus
Putin Will Turn a Cease-Fire Into a Weapon
To recall the last negotiated peace with Russia is to tell a depressing tale. Russia invaded Ukraine in March 2014, annexing Crimea and then moving regular and irregular forces into the Donbas, in the country’s east. After months of war and intense interference in domestic Ukrainian affairs, Moscow
Senegal Is on the Brink
West Africa is reeling. Over the past five years, coups have racked Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, and the juntas now in charge are dismantling the countries’ institutions. Even as they repress their subjects, they are losing territory to emboldened insurgents. And as these insurgent groups become m
America and Iran’s Strange Moment of Opportunity
The U.S.-Iranian relationship is worse than ever before. Over the last four months, the American and Israeli militaries have waged full-scale war against the Islamic Republic, including by assassinating much of its political and military leadership. Iran has retaliated by attacking U.S. military bas
How to Win the Defense Innovation Contest
Washington’s alliances are under immense strain. Many allies and partners are subject to increased threats from great-power adversaries, and they are coming to doubt whether they can rely on the United States. The response to these pressures is to rearm. Like the United States itself, U.S. partners
Iran Is Losing Iraq
Whenever the Iran war comes to an end, the Islamic Republic is likely to emerge in a stronger position. Should the terms of a June memorandum of understanding be met, Western governments would lift many sanctions on Tehran and the country would gradually be reintegrated into the global economy. Iran
How to Save the UN From Irrelevance
In early September 2022, in the no man’s land between the military frontlines of Ukraine and Russia, I had a decision to make: press on under fire, to establish a team of International Atomic Energy Agency safety experts at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, or turn around. It had taken weeks of
Trump Is Remaking Latin America
At the G-7 summit in June, the global media eagerly gathered to hear U.S. President Donald Trump provide details about his administration’s latest agreement with Iran. But Trump insisted on returning to one of his favorite subjects: the U.S. military operation that captured Venezuela’s then leader,
The Ukraine Lesson Taiwan Keeps Missing
The conflict in Ukraine, now in its fifth year, has provided extraordinary lessons about the future of war. The enormous impact of cheap, remotely piloted unmanned systems—on the ground, in the air, and at sea—cannot be overstated. But there is a danger that military strategists will look at the bat
Can the Private Sector Save Vietnam?
Every five years, amid the red banners, choreographed pageantry, and lofty speeches of its party congress, the Communist Party of Vietnam releases two staid policy documents: a political report and a socioeconomic development plan. Although infused with party rhetoric, these texts are more than ideo
How Europe Can Get Putin’s Attention
“I believe we should talk to Putin,” Finnish President Alexander Stubb said in an early June interview. It was a revealing admission. Stubb has, for years, been one of Europe’s most pro-Ukraine politicians and generally hawkish toward the Kremlin. But now, Stubb told journalists, ignoring Russian Pr
Build a Palestinian State
In recent months, the U.S.-Israeli relationship has been subjected to unprecedented scrutiny from all sides. Forty Democratic senators voted to block an arms sale to Israel in April because of the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza, Iran, and Lebanon, a vote that would have been unimaginable only
A Better Way to Build AI
As the United States races to build the infrastructure required for artificial intelligence, it faces a constraint: legitimacy at the local level. Data centers, transmission lines, and energy-intensive computing facilities have become strategic assets, central to economic competitiveness and nationa
The Transatlantic Alliance Can’t Survive Without Trust
For over a decade, U.S. President Donald Trump has accused Washington’s European allies of free-riding on American security guarantees. He has been criticizing NATO members that do not pay “their fair share” since launching his first presidential campaign in 2015. He threatened to pull out of the al
The Military and the Republic
Celebrations of America’s founding and reflections on its ideals often overlook the central role of civil-military relations. This is a mistake. In the Declaration of Independence, a chief complaint was that King George III “affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil po
The Strong Do What They Can—and Suffer What They Must
It seems to many these days that the world is a jungle beholden only to one law. Since returning to office in 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump has not only made a spectacle of American power—by striking alleged drug smugglers in the Caribbean, kidnapping Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, bombing
The End of Hamas
The consensus among analysts is that Hamas is down, but hardly out. The group may be badly battered, but it has been around since 1987, and in that time, it has been repeatedly attacked by Israel and has always grown back. The conditions that gave rise to the organization—occupation, dispossession,
Why Trump’s Congo Deal Is Falling Apart
When the presidents of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda met in Washington, D.C., in early December 2025, for a ceremony sealing the peace deal that ended four years of fighting, it was meant to showcase U.S. President Donald Trump’s ability to settle even the most intractable conflict
Worse Than an Axis
If actions speak louder than words, the four major adversaries of the United States have sent a very clear message over the past few months. In June, Chinese leader Xi Jinping took his first international trip of 2026 to North Korea, where he and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un agreed to expand thei
How to Save the U.S.-Israeli Alliance
In 2015, as the United States negotiated the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran—an agreement Israel was not a party to—we argued in Foreign Affairs that Israel and the United States should pursue a parallel agreement to ensure that any U.S.-Iranian deal would be durable and aligned
Extreme Weather Will Upend U.S.-China Competition
Climate change looms in the background of the contest between China and the United States. It is the underappreciated factor that could determine who wins the race to develop frontier technologies, gain economic advantages, and secure influence across the world. And as global temperatures continue t
Europe Goes Its Own Way
Europeans have been humiliated, disparaged, and sidelined since U.S. President Donald Trump returned to office in 2025. Indeed, it is no exaggeration to say that Europe has become the president’s favorite punching bag. The continent is, his administration believes, militarily emaciated, economically
Who Is Winning Africa’s Drone Wars?
On June 22, 2025, fiber-optic first-person-view drones operated by the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), a Tuareg rebel group, slammed into a convoy of Russian Africa Corps and Malian armed forces vehicles in northern Mali. Footage shows the drones striking two trucks, then cuts to fighters posing besi
Iran Didn’t Win the War
Much of Washington has greeted the Iran cease-fire deal with scorn. After more than three months of war, the United States and Israel failed to achieve many of their objectives, which included overthrowing the regime in Tehran and ending a potential Iranian nuclear threat. But when viewed from a bro
New Prime Minister, Same Problem
When British Prime Minister Keir Starmer led the Labour Party to a landslide victory in July 2024, he hailed the result as the end of 14 years of misrule by the Conservative Party and the beginning of a long period of stable, technocratic government. Starmer, the cautious former director of public p