Ideas
Syria Is Forcing Former Rebels to Fight Their Friends
The U.S. should withhold reconstruction funds until Assad ends forced conscription and makes other constitutional changes.
Ideas
No One’s Supplanting US Military Influence in Latin America
Concerns about Chinese, Russian, and Iranian forays are overblown.
Ideas
Washington Won’t Keep Rebuffing Moscow’s Cyber Proposals Forever
Here’s where the U.S. will find common ground with the country that attacked its 2016 election.
Ideas
The China Hype
While Beijing’s military gains are impressive, their value fades in the circumstances we’re told to worry about.
Ideas
The US-China Cold War Is Now Playing Out in Pakistan
It is causing a long, tough re-negotiation over the terms of the relationship between Washington and Islamabad.
Ideas
Russia Is Co-opting Angry Young Men
Fight clubs, neo-Nazi soccer hooligans, and motorcycle gangs serve as conduits for the Kremlin’s influence operations in Western countries.
Ideas
John McCain, Nuclear Disarmament, and What Might Have Been
If McCain had become president in 2008, the world might have had far fewer nuclear weapons today.
Ideas
Women Rise as Raqqa Rebuilds Without the World’s Help
Local women and local security are reawakening the Syrian city, with few Americans in sight.
Ideas
The Plan to End the Korean War
An adviser to South Korea’s president explains what it might mean to finally declare the conflict over—and why the proposal has now become a sticking point in nuclear talks.
Ideas
No Matter Who Wins the Syrian Civil War, Israel Loses
Assad is Iran’s most important Arab ally; his would-be successors are Sunni militias and jihadists. Netanyahu’s overtures to Putin can’t change that.
Ideas
Nikki Haley Warns That Iran Could Become ‘the Next North Korea’
The UN ambassador offered an explanation for abandoning one nuclear deal while pursuing another.
Ideas
Keep an Eye on Syria’s Idlib Province, Says Former Acting Spy Chief
President Obama’s primary intelligence briefer shares thoughts about U.S. national security, emerging trends, and hotspots.
Ideas
Turkey Made a Bet Against Assad—And Lost
Back in 2011, Erdoğan supported the rebels against the Syrian regime in hopes of gaining influence across the Middle East. Things haven’t gone according to plan.
Ideas
ISIS Is Ready For a Resurgence
The new recording released by the group’s leader suggested he’s looking to the past to chart a course for the group’s ultimate triumph.
Ideas
Toward A Smaller, Smarter Force Posture in the Middle East
The National Defense Strategy’s turn toward Russia and China requires the U.S. military to alter its Gulf assets.
Ideas
Donald Trump Sorrowfully Cancels Another North Korea Meeting
For the first time since his summit with Kim Jong Un, the president acknowledged that nuclear talks aren’t going well.
Ideas
What I Learned by Studying Militarized Policing
It doesn’t make the police or public any safer. But figuring that out exposed the dearth of useable data on law-enforcement practices.
Ideas
This Is the Political Moment to Stop Supporting the Saudi War in Yemen
The deadly attack on a school bus with a U.S. laser-guided bomb should, at last, end Washington's backing.
Policy
Even Trump’s Own Adviser Is Warning About ‘Politicizing’ the Threat From Russia
But the danger he sees is already here.
Ideas