Foreign Policy

The United States and other world powers lifted a raft of crushing sanctions against Iran on Saturday as a landmark nuclear deal with Tehran took effect. Hours earlier, Iran released five Americans it had detained, including Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian.

Pakistan Suicide bomb near polio center in Quetta kills 16 A suicide bombing outside of a polio vaccination center in Quetta has killed at least 16 people on Wednesday (NYT). According to Syed Imtiaz Shah, a senior official with the Quetta police, 13 of the victims were police officers there to guard polio workers, who ...

By Paul McLeary with Adam Rawnsley They’re out. Just after dawn broke over the Persian Gulf on Wednesday, ten U.S. sailors being held by Iranian forces on Farsi Island got in their boats, and sailed away. The crews of the two Riverine Command Boats — detained Tuesday after sailing into Iranian territorial waters — were ...

Iran has released 10 U.S. sailors who were captured yesterday when their navigational equipment failed and they drifted near Farsi Island, the location of an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps base. The U.S. Navy personnel were held for several hours and questioned about their intentions, but this morning they were allowed to board their ships and ...

Under strain from an influx of asylum seekers claiming to be children, Sweden is now considering instituting mandatory age tests.

Obama took on Trump and other GOP presidential candidates but conspicuously sidestepped weaknesses in his own foreign policy legacy.

2015 Global Thinker Wai Wai Nu and Fortify Rights executive director Matthew Smith warn that democracy will mean little unless Muslims get a seat at the political table.

It's his final State of the Union.

The Wassenaar Arrangement aims to reduce the supply of spy software for authoritarian states.

Crude oil’s plunge would have been cause for celebration in years past. But falling prices today are hammering many of the states that enjoyed oil-fueled economic boom years.

Paradoxical as it may sound, Burma’s democratic transition cannot succeed without Beijing.

Long before Donald Trump’s demonizing of Muslims, the Founding Fathers debated whether Islam should be defended.

The best stories from around the world.

The Russian leader has been stirring the pot from Crimea to Syria — but to what end?

A doctor on trial for comparing President Erodgan to Gollum is only the most visible example of Ankara's growing crackdown on freedom of expression.

President Obama likened the search for lone-wolf terrorists to finding mass shooters.

Pakistan may be winning the war against radicals on the battlefield, but it’s losing the war for hearts and minds.

With the small Central African country spiraling toward chaos, the AU may be about to make an unprecedented decision to force a peacekeeping mission.

Pakistanis hope that the army’s new chief of staff, Raheel Sharif, will crack down on militants and boost security. But can one man change a corrupt legal system and prejudiced security infrastructure?

Cold War-era deterrence theory won't cut it anymore.