Foreign Policy
Q. & A.
Elliott Abrams and the Contradictions of U.S. Human-Rights Policy
The longtime State Department official and Iran-Contra player on Israel’s war in Gaza and his own record in Latin America.
The Political Scene Podcast
The Political Books That Help Us Make Sense of 2024
The works of fiction and nonfiction that offer clarity on the Trump-Biden rematch, U.S. foreign policy, and even Vladimir Putin.
Our Columnists
Aaron Bushnell’s Act of Political Despair
What does it mean for an American to self-immolate?
News Desk
What Could Tip the Balance in the War in Ukraine?
In 2024, the most decisive fight may also be the least visible: Russia and Ukraine will spend the next twelve months in a race to reconstitute and resupply their forces.
The Political Scene Podcast
The Year in Getting “Chotinered”
Tyler Foggatt looks back on 2023 with The New Yorker’s infamously relentless interviewer, Isaac Chotiner.
The Political Scene
Why a State Department Official Lost Hope in Israel
For more than a decade, Josh Paul helped send American weapons overseas. After the Hamas attack, he resigned in protest of arming the Israeli response.
The Political Scene Podcast
Joe Biden’s Bear-Hug Diplomacy in Israel
This week, the President made a diplomatic visit to Tel Aviv, and sought aid from Congress for both Israel and Ukraine.
Q. & A.
The Humanitarian Catastrophe in Gaza
International-law obligations are nonreciprocal: one war crime doesn’t excuse another.
Daily Comment
Can White House Diplomacy Help Prevent Escalation in Gaza and Beyond?
It is not a simple matter for the Biden Administration to be, on the one hand, the backstop for Israel’s looming actions in Gaza and, on the other, a voice for strategic caution and the initiator of a diplomatic track.
Daily Comment
Bob Menendez and the Perils of Dealing with Autocrats
Egypt’s appearance in the senator’s corruption case is a reminder of the risks of alliances with authoritarians, who often try to manipulate our political process as they do at home.
Essay
The Case for Negotiating with Russia
Samuel Charap is asking Ukraine and its allies to consider how much worse the war could get.
Q. & A.
Biden’s Moral Calculus in Brokering a Saudi-Israeli Peace Deal
The U.S. is trying to land a tripartite agreement that could dramatically alter its involvement in the Middle East.
Q. & A.
What Prigozhin’s Half-Baked “Coup” Could Mean for Putin’s Rule
Although the immediate threat of revolt has been extinguished, the episode may embolden future challengers to Russia’s status quo.
Q. & A.
Ted Koppel on Covering—and Befriending—Henry Kissinger
Did the veteran newscaster give Kissinger a pass on his hundredth birthday?
Letter from Biden’s Washington
“Debt-Limit Terror” Is No Way to Run a Superpower
On the latest round of the Republicans’ dangerous game.
The Political Scene Podcast
Trump’s Indictment, and a Brief History of Election Dirty Tricks
Our political roundtable looks at the historic charges against Donald Trump, then discusses a dark, decades-long campaign tactic practiced in Vietnam, Ukraine, and beyond: secretly manipulating U.S. foreign policy for domestic political gain.
The Political Scene Podcast
We’re Living in a World Created by the Iraq War
Two decades after U.S. forces attacked Iraq, our political roundtable explores the war’s lasting effects on American politics and society.
Q. & A.
What the Saudi-Iran Deal Means for the Middle East
Brokered by China, the agreement between the two regional rivals reflects shifting economic—and ideological—alignments.
News Desk
An Abandoned American Hostage Finally Makes It Home
After more than two years of neglect by the Trump and Biden Administrations, Mark Frerichs describes how he survived Taliban captivity in Afghanistan.
Comment
Sliding Toward a New Cold War
Not since the Berlin Wall fell has the world been cleaved so deeply by the kind of conflict that John F. Kennedy called a “long, twilight struggle.”