Ideas
Cognitive Science Helps Explain How We Blunder Into War
A new book explores how common flaws in human reasoning drew the U.S. into Vietnam — and how tomorrow’s leaders can avoid them.
Ideas
The Secret to Effective Foreign Aid? Sometimes, It’s Giving Cash
For the first time, USAID compared a traditional intervention to a simple cash transfer.
Ideas
What Next for US-India Military Ties?
A new agreement between top U.S. and Indian officials will deepen military cooperation and bolster strategic ties between the two countries.
Threats
Putin Makes a Move for Peace Through Force
Russia is involved in many of the world’s greatest crises—but there are signs public support for overseas ventures is waning.
Ideas
How US and European Aims Overlap in the Middle East
Although deep disconnects plague transatlantic cooperation, the two sides still share a common interest in stabilizing this volatile region.
Ideas
What It Would Take for Iran to Talk to Trump
It may not seem like it, but Tehran has a lot to gain from meeting with a U.S. president in search of his own nuclear deal.
Ideas
The Marshall Plan That Failed
Before George Marshall transformed American foreign policy in Europe, he lost a major political fight in China.
Ideas
'A Sudden Burst of Movement’ on the Afghan Peace Process
The reported U.S. offer of direct talks with the Taliban is adding to rare optimism in Afghanistan.
Ideas
Yemen's Fleeting Opportunity for Peace
A deal to stop a bloody fight over Hodeidah has no shot without the full backing of the Saudi-led coalition and the West.
Ideas
Trump Meets Putin While America Confronts Russia
The U.S. president may be seeking better terms with his counterpart. But the relationship between their countries just seems to keep getting worse.
Ideas
The Self-Inflicted Demise of American Power
The effect of Trump’s foreign-policy doctrine can be summed up as “Make America Weak Again.”
Ideas
The Rise of Iraq's Young Secularists
On Facebook and in the cafés of decimated Mosul, they envision a country free from political Islam. Do they have a shot?
Ideas
Can Global Agreements Survive Without the US? Climate Change Offers A Test Case
American withdrawal from the Paris agreement is a test for the future of the globe, but also for the international order.
Policy
Has Trump Irreversibly Altered the GOP's Foreign Policy?
He’s reprising a struggle within the party that was fought in the 1950s—with long-term results.
Ideas
The French President Has Described America Like a Rogue State
"We have to try to convince the United States to remain in the community of nations.”
Ideas
I'm an Actor and Activist. Silence Is Just Not an Option
After Roseanne's tweets, critics again want to silence all artists. But I'm a 10-year advocate for human rights in Iran and done right political participation should include all people — including celebrities.
Ideas
Trump’s Reckoning Arrives
The president’s unpredictability once worked to his advantage—but now, it is producing a mounting list of foreign-policy failures.
Ideas
A Reckoning for Obama's Foreign-Policy Legacy
Veterans of the last administration are learning a hard lesson: Policies constructed by executive order and executive agreement are just as easily blown up by them.
Ideas