Foreign Affairs

The Spanish government's plans to exhume the country's former dictator Francisco Franco from the Valley of the Fallen has caused a fierce debate over the dictator's legacy and the politics of memory. 

Earlier this month, Geir Pedersen, Norway’s ambassador to China and a former permanent representative to the United Nations, was appointed special envoy on the Syria conflict. The task Pedersen inherits is gargantuan, even for one of the better-respected diplomats in the UN biosphere, and one with a long history of work on seemingly intractable conflicts. Syria has been brutalized for nearly eight years now. Pedersen inherits a broken opposition and a stubborn, unruly, murderous dictator in Damascus who refuses to leave. At the very heart of any negotiation must be the simple premise that Assad—a man with much blood on his hands, but who retains the support of Putin and Hezbollah—must go. 

The turmoil in the Catholic Church today reveals yet another front in the populist rebellion against establishment leaders that has roiled the politics of the West.

The United States and key regional allies are finally sharpening their focus on strategic competition with China for influence in the South Pacific.

Focus on liberalizing investment, not trade, at the G-20.

Jair Bolsonaro has accomplished the once unthinkable: he has won the presidency of Latin America’s largest country, which accounts for approximately 40 percent of the region’s population and a roughly equal share of its GDP. Bolsonaro will likely preside over the biggest foreign policy shift in Brazil's recent history—a change that will have important reverberations throughout the Americas and across the globe. He has made clear his intention not only to be one of Washington’s strongest allies but to borrow much of his international agenda directly from Trump’s playbook. 

The Khashoggi affair comes at a bad time for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is facing economic troubles and tension with Europe and Washington. But Erdogan seems to be playing his cards carefully, and trying to turn the affair into an opportunity to damage the reputation of his rival, the young Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS). Ankara seems to have more evidence against Riyadh than it has revealed so far, suggesting that Erdogan might be using some evidence as leverage to extract concessions, such as increased financial support from Saudi Arabia or exemption from impending U.S. sanctions on Iran. 

Despite Jair Bolsonaro's repeated misogynist comments about women, his anti-corruption, law-and-order platform has the support of many female voters concerned about corruption and violence in Brazil. 

The split in the Orthodox Church between Constantinople and Moscow will have wide-ranging implications for Russia's foreign policy under Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian domestic politics under Petro Poroshenko.

Khashoggi's death has made the need to reassess the US-Saudi relationship urgent and unavoidable.

Since the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States, Europeans have struggled to come to terms with his confrontational style and policies. From Trump’s tariffs to his withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris agreement to calling the EU a “foe,” no U.S. president since World War II has appeared so distant, even hostile, to European interests. Early on, many European leaders attempted to cultivate a good relationship with Trump, hoping that a personal connection could help calm the increasingly turbulent waters of the transatlantic alliance. Some, such as French President Emmanuel Macron and EU President Jean-Claude Juncker, succeeded, while others, such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Theresa May, fared less well.

Read More

With U.S. untethering a continuing trend, a Europe whole, free, and at peace means a Europe able to fend for itself on the world stage

Iraq has a new president and prime minister, but the way they gained power strongly suggests that their appointments were the result of muhasasa dealings rather than the functioning of parliamentary democracy. If this turns out to be true, any efforts they make to reform Iraq’s corrupt government will be hampered by the debts they owe to the powers that put them in place.

We asked dozens of experts to weigh in on whether the transatlantic alliance has been irreparably damaged.

This sprawling book by a Pakistani diplomat and anthropologist examines why relations between Muslims and non-Muslims in Europe are so contentious—and what might be done about it. 

Ever since World War II, countries have been reluctant to officially declare war on one another, even after they appear to be fighting one. Because a declaration of war brings burdensome legal consequences, the simplest approach is to find a euphemism to describe the conflict.

Anyone glancing at a newspaper these days finds a litany of woes: war, crime, disease, terrorism, and environmental disasters, all sandwiched between predictions of the coming collapse of market capitalism and liberal democracy. U.S. politicians on both the right, such as President Donald Trump, and the left, such as Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, warn that the United States and the world are sliding toward calamity. Pessimism rules the day. The world does indeed face challenges. Yet by almost any measure, life for most people has been getting better in almost every way. Levels of war and conflict are near historic lows. People are living longer and healthier lives and are better educated than ever before. Incomes for most families are higher than at any time in history. One billion people around the world have been lifted out of extreme poverty in the last two decades, and although...

Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew and former State Department Principal Deputy Coordinator for Sanctions Policy Richard Nephew argue that since the end of the Cold War, the United States’ use of unilateral economic policy, particularly sanctions, has threatened to alienate other countries and undermine U.S. power. Under President Donald Trump, that threat has become a reality.

A future conventional conflict between the United States and China could slide into a nuclear crisis more easily than we think.

To compensate the losers from globalization, the United States must build a lifelong ladder of opportunity that goes from early childhood education to employment-based training throughout an individual’s working life.