Why Ukraine Matters
If Putinism is victorious in Ukraine, it will set a horrific precedent not only for other territorial grabs but also other attacks on democracy.
Can Global Sports Boycotts Help End the War in Ukraine?
The power of sports to legitimize a regime also means they have the power to delegitimize one, too.
Fear and Loathing in Duterte’s Philippines: An Interview with Vicente Rafael
Rodrigo Duterte is about to leave office. Will his successor as Philippine president be just as vulgar and ruthless?
Continental Drifters and the Nationless Nation
The number of people forcibly displaced by war, persecution, general violence, or human-rights violations last year swelled to a staggering 84 million.
Will Syria Cause a Divorce Between Iran and Turkey?
As Turkey and Iran seek to extend their respective influence throughout the Middle East and Central Asia, their interests and regional agendas have inevitably clashed, as evidenced by their conflicting positions on the turmoil in Syria. But although divergent interests in the Syrian conflict pull Turkey and Iran in opposite directions, their mutual interests in maintaining cordial relations will likely prevent the Syrian issue from precipitating a major split.
Deporting Adult Adoptees
Excited about turning 18 during a presidential election year, Jenna Johnson registered to vote with her high school classmates and cast her first ballot. She canvassed her local Minnesota neighborhood as a volunteer signing up voters. Then four years later, while sharing stories with other Korean adoptees who remembered their naturalization ceremonies, Jenna couldn’t recall ever experiencing her own. A few days later, she phoned what was then the Immigration and Naturalization Service to check on her status and was shocked to learn that she was not a U.S. citizen. Her green card, which she kept as a memento from her adoption as a 2-year old, had expired.
The 250
In March 1990, I entered East Germany for the start of nearly seven months of travel throughout Eastern Europe. In my backpack, I carried an early version of a laptop and a cutting-edge portable printer. I had a simple agenda: talk to people, write reports, and send them back to my employers by snail mail.
Agreement on Syria Reached Without Syrians
There are three main reasons intervention is currently untenable: the fragmented and Islamic nature of the opposition, the Syrian regime’s backers, and the war-weary, insolvent West.
Syria’s Stalin and His Gulag
Human Rights Watch has produced a damning report on Syria’s torture regime.
U.S., Russia Continue to Jockey for Influence in Syria
There’s few prices short of war the Kremlin will not pay to keep from losing its sole remaining Arab ally.
Depth of Republican Enthusiasm for Condi Rice Matched by Lack Thereof for Romney
Despite her poor record as national security advisor and secretary of state, Republicans are still all in for her.
South Sudan’s Unhappy Anniversary
The status of the province of Abyei is an unresolved issue from the June 2011 détente between Sudan and South Sudan. In the year since South Sudan’s independence, the two countries have managed to avoid a full-scale war. But minor skirmishes on the border and illegitimate air raids on the Heglig oil field in April 2012, however, have disrupted that faulty peace.
The Limits of Information in North Korea
If North Koreans simply knew more about the world outside – or received more accurate information about their own society – they would transform their country. This is an operating assumption behind much of the policy thinking in Washington and Seoul. Both governments pour money into radio stations that beam information into North Korea. Civil society activists, perhaps impatient with the incremental pace of government policy, try to get information into the notoriously isolated country by any means possible, from floating balloons over the border to crossing into the country to proselytize in person.
President Obama Takes Globalization to New Heights
The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement is shaping up to be as bad as NAFTA or worse.