Foreign Policy

Foreign Policy helps you dive into the headlines with rigorous analysis and award-winning journalism focused on global affairs, current events, and international relations.

Foreign Policy

Oct 17, 2021 - 15 min

Who will win the global war for talent?

After the Great Lockdown will come the next Great Migration.

Foreign Policy

Oct 12, 2021 - 21 min

Why this energy crisis is different

The transition to clean energy has become even more crucial.

Foreign Policy

Oct 7, 2021 - 26 min

China is a declining power - and that's the problem

And why the US will need a “danger zone” strategy.

Foreign Policy

Oct 4, 2021 - 18 min

How Europe's temperance movement saved beer

Socialists fought for prohibition to stop workers from being exploited.

Foreign Policy

Sep 28, 2021 - 5 min

The Taliban don't need the West

They have proven themselves to be skilled and ruthless diplomats.

Foreign Policy

Sep 24, 2021 - 9 min

The AUKUS Dominoes are just starting to fall

Will it pose a threat to China?

Foreign Policy

Sep 17, 2021 - 15 min

Portugal’s sardine capitalism is a model for the world

Could it show other small countries a path to recovery?

Foreign Policy

Sep 14, 2021 - 28 min

Nothing but pitch black darkness

Fatima Bhutto describes a prisoner's journey through Guantánamo.

Foreign Policy

Sep 11, 2021 - 13 min

What happens when women can’t get legal abortions

Restrictions can actually lead to more of them.

Foreign Policy

Sep 6, 2021 - 23 min

The world needs a new refugee convention

Why politics on the subject need modernising.

Foreign Policy

Aug 28, 2021 - 13 min

To understand Afghanistan’s future, reckon with the region’s colonial past

Inspiration from their history could chart a sustainable future.

Foreign Policy

Aug 25, 2021 - 8 min

Two Talibans are competing for Afghanistan

Signs of infighting are beginning to show.

Foreign Policy

Aug 20, 2021 - 12 min

Take a breath, thank a whale

Like the Amazon rainforest, whales play crucial roles as carbon captors.

Foreign Policy

Aug 19, 2021 - 9 min

Why Afghanistan’s tribes beat the United States

Is a new political ecology on the rise?

Foreign Policy

Aug 16, 2021 - 20 min

An Israeli-Palestinian ice cream sandwich

Behind the world’s biggest soft scoop conflict.

Foreign Policy

Aug 14, 2021 - 14 min

Can enemies become allies in the fight against climate change?

It could be a peacemaker.

Foreign Policy

Aug 7, 2021 - 20 min

The science says everyone needs a COVID-19 booster shot — and soon

Should we be prepared to book our third jab?  

Foreign Policy

Aug 4, 2021 - 10 min

Why is everyone going to Iceland?

How Reykjavik successfully managed the pandemic.

Foreign Policy

Jul 26, 2021 - 10 min

China knows the power of 5G. Why doesn’t the U.S.?

The West needs to recognise it before it’s too late.

Foreign Policy

Jul 23, 2021 - 13 min

America’s collapsing meritocracy is a recipe for revolt

Chinese history shows what happens when an old system loses its force.

Foreign Policy

Jul 17, 2021 - 23 min

The other side of Angela Merkel

What the world has misunderstood about the German chancellor.

Foreign Policy

Jul 10, 2021 - 11 min

Panzers, beans, and bullets

How a video game doubles as an incredibly accurate history lesson.

Foreign Policy

Jul 6, 2021 - 10 min

El Salvador is printing money with bitcoin

The country's President doesn’t want to ditch dollars. He just wants his own.

Foreign Policy

Jul 2, 2021 - 10 min

The world hasn’t figured out how to stop ‘revenge porn’

Why the practice is still flourishing.

Foreign Policy

Jul 1, 2021 - 11 min

Cryptocurrency isn’t all bad

Could decentralized finance end poverty?

Foreign Policy

Jun 26, 2021 - 14 min

The past doesn’t tell easy stories about the west

Why the instrumental use of history needs to end.

Foreign Policy

Jun 19, 2021 - 15 min

Alex de Waal: ‘War on Disease’ is a self-fulfilling prophecy

It's time to start rethinking disease threats.

Foreign Policy

Jun 12, 2021 - 21 min

Edward Said saw the future of Israel and Palestine

The mainstream is noticing the late thinker.

Foreign Policy

Jun 10, 2021 - 10 min

Small farms, big pollution

We shouldn't abandon big agriculture. We should make it work better.

Foreign Policy

Jun 8, 2021 - 14 min

Why everyone hates think tanks

Are they essential to democracy?

Foreign Policy

Jun 3, 2021 - 9 min

Big oil’s tobacco moment

Will Shell change its pollutant ways?

Foreign Policy

May 23, 2021 - 9 min

The crisis in space

Man-made "megaconstellations" could end space travel.

Foreign Policy

May 20, 2021 - 12 min

Claims of microwave attacks are scientifically implausible

The US military has always hoped for death rays. Does one already exist?

Foreign Policy

May 15, 2021 - 12 min

Green-lined vision Is blurring reality in Israel-Palestine

Perceptions are starting to change.

Foreign Policy

May 7, 2021 - 10 min

What Biden should learn from Indochina

The cost of maintaining the status quo is higher than drastic policy change.

Foreign Policy

May 6, 2021 - 9 min

Vaccines will shape the new geopolitical order

The gulf between haves and have-nots is only growing.

Foreign Policy

Apr 30, 2021 - 10 min

Why rare earths are the key to just about everything

Their importance to almost all modern technologies cannot be overstated.

Foreign Policy

Apr 24, 2021 - 12 min

A masterful account of America’s doomed Afghanistan mission

The perfect read alongside the US military's withdrawal.

Foreign Policy

Apr 20, 2021 - 27 min

The Sullivan model

A once-in-a-generation challenge for a 'once-in-a-generation intellect'.

Foreign Policy

Apr 9, 2021 - 44 min

Janet Yellen and Mario Draghi have one last job

Can the power of technocracy save the economy?

Foreign Policy

Apr 4, 2021 - 15 min

The US needs deradicalization — for Christian extremists

Reeducating QAnon followers.

Foreign Policy

Mar 27, 2021 - 10 min

Everyone was wrong on the pandemic’s societal impact

Why didn't our mindsets change in lockdown?

Foreign Policy

Mar 16, 2021 - 9 min

Why do royals get away with so much?

Prince Andrew's luck might be running out.

Foreign Policy

Mar 9, 2021 - 16 min

The first draft of history

A passionate reminder of why foreign correspondence is so important.

Foreign Policy

Feb 21, 2021 - 21 min

America abandoned its economic prophet — the world embraced him

Who was John Kenneth Galbraith?

Foreign Policy

Feb 13, 2021 - 28 min

Why Jürgen Habermas disappeared

Adam Tooze on why Habermas "may be the foremost intellectual in Europe."

Foreign Policy

Feb 8, 2021 - 11 min

Vaccine nationalism harms everyone and protects no one

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on why hoarding vaccines is medically self-defeating.

Foreign Policy

Feb 1, 2021 - 13 min

Navalny’s bravery is unlikely to shift Putin’s entrenched power

There’s no sign of defection from Russia’s security services, let alone the army.

Foreign Policy

Jan 25, 2021 - 30 min

The rise and fall and rise (and fall) of the U.S. financial empire

The dollar is dead. Long live the dollar?

Foreign Policy

Jan 22, 2021 - 10 min

Democracy at home and democracy promotion abroad aren’t the same

Hypocrisy has long been a component of US foreign policy — the Capitol riot doesn’t change that.

Foreign Policy

Jan 16, 2021 - 14 min

The beautiful, dumb dream of McDonald’s peace theory

“No two countries that both have a McDonald’s have ever fought a war against each other.”

Foreign Policy

Jan 5, 2021 - 8 min

Why India’s farmers won’t stop protesting

Agriculture’s importance to the country's labour market cannot be underestimated.

Foreign Policy

Nov 23, 2020 - 23 min

Were they lost students or inept spies for China?

Two roommates travelling in Florida found themselves caught in the teeth of espionage fears.

Foreign Policy

Nov 17, 2020 - 10 min

Switzerland is choosing austerity over life

The nation's lack of action in controlling COVID may be rooted in purely pragmatic use of language.

Foreign Policy

Nov 3, 2020 - 20 min

The game that ruins friendships and shapes careers

Reflections on the favourite board game of Washington officials.

Foreign Policy

Oct 26, 2020 - 11 min

China backs off from fight with K-Pop fans

Deciphering how fans of the Korean band BTS took on China, and won.

Foreign Policy

Oct 24, 2020 - 25 min

Welcome to the final battle for the climate

Great powers have taken big steps to fight global warming — now attention turns to the rest of the world.

Foreign Policy

Oct 16, 2020 - 10 min

COVID-19 might not change the world

Pandemics are not always transformative events.

Foreign Policy

Oct 12, 2020 - 12 min

Beijing is winning the clean energy race

And that's bad for the U.S.

Foreign Policy

Oct 8, 2020 - 9 min

Why are Armenia and Azerbaijan heading to war?

The Soviet collapse caused a brutal conflict that’s remained unresolved for three decades.

Foreign Policy

Oct 6, 2020 - 15 min

The Republican and Democratic Parties are heading for collapse

US political parties have reshuffled every few decades, and 2020 may be the year they do it again.

Foreign Policy

Oct 3, 2020 - 13 min

Did Xi just save the world?

China might have permanently changed the global fight against climate change.

Foreign Policy

Oct 2, 2020 - 27 min

Why Europe wins

In the last decade, Brussels has outsmarted Beijing, London, Moscow and Washington.

Foreign Policy

Oct 1, 2020 - 16 min

When Europe loved Islam

The history of Islam in Western Europe is both older and more entangled than many think.

Foreign Policy

Sep 19, 2020 - 10 min

The genetic engineering genie is out of the bottle

The next pandemic could be bioengineered in someone’s garage using cheap technology.

Foreign Policy

Sep 8, 2020 - 22 min

Welcome to the post-leader world

The United States has abdicated its dominant role — here’s how to fill the gap.

Foreign Policy

Sep 4, 2020 - 14 min

The tragic romance of the nostalgic western liberal

Reviewing Anna Applebaum's book, 'Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism'.

Foreign Policy

Sep 3, 2020 - 11 min

Transgender and trapped in sex-based social distancing

Panama came up with a novel — and uniquely discriminatory — public health measure to combat COVID-19.

Foreign Policy

Aug 27, 2020 - 16 min

Why protests threaten dictatorships but make democracies stronger

Understanding how recent nationwide protests have made the American political system stronger, and not weaker.

Foreign Policy

Aug 25, 2020 - 9 min

There’s no cold war with China

Applying 20th-century analogies to the U.S.-Chinese relationship shows a misunderstanding of the present.

Foreign Policy

Aug 11, 2020 - 10 min

Afghanistan’s Gen Z is fighting back

Young citizens are on a mission to change their country.

Foreign Policy

Aug 9, 2020 - 33 min

The sociologist who could save us from coronavirus

Why the omnipresence of large-scale threats of global scope can be the common denominator of our new epoch.

Foreign Policy

Jul 31, 2020 - 9 min

China’s superpower dreams are running out of money

When the coronavirus crisis is over, China will be forced to embrace a less ambitious future.

Foreign Policy

Jul 23, 2020 - 14 min

The anti-American century

Has the US-led world order crumbled?

Foreign Policy

Jul 15, 2020 - 16 min

Why India and Russia are going to stay friends

Since 1971, the relationship between both has remained the same: of consistently unique use.

Foreign Policy

Jul 7, 2020 - 10 min

In Cambodia, a spiritual army battles an earthly pandemic

With little faith in the government’s coronavirus response, many rural Cambodians are turning to the divine.

Foreign Policy

Jul 4, 2020 - 10 min

How Europe fell out of love with China

Trump's looking for a divorce with China, and the EU doesn't look far behind.

Foreign Policy

Jun 29, 2020 - 22 min

The great pause was an economic revolution

Our relationship with the economy will never be the same again.

Foreign Policy

Jun 16, 2020 - 25 min

Welcome back to Kissinger’s world

He remains a highly controversial figure, but his ideas can't be ignored, especially not today.

Foreign Policy

Jun 10, 2020 - 9 min

Tiananmen can happen here

Westerners learn the wrong lessons from a distant massacre.

Foreign Policy

Jun 3, 2020 - 9 min

Why we should worry about China and India’s border skirmishes

Recent escalations between the two nations are putting three decades of peace in danger.

Foreign Policy

May 27, 2020 - 14 min

We remember World War II wrong

With war language thrown around so readily, it’s time to admit what the war was — and wasn’t.

Foreign Policy

May 26, 2020 - 10 min

Strategists have forgotten the power of stories

Why the arts are invaluable.

Foreign Policy

May 21, 2020 - 12 min

Annexation could be the final blow to the Israel-Jordan relationship

Anger against Israel's government is rising among Jordanians.

Foreign Policy

May 17, 2020 - 10 min

For the Taliban, the pandemic is a ladder

Insurgents typically excel at exploiting state weaknesses and crises and COVID-19 is no exception.

Foreign Policy

May 11, 2020 - 10 min

The fate of the WTO and global trade hangs on fish

Reaching global agreement is essential for the world’s marine fishing stocks - and the future of the WTO.

Foreign Policy

May 10, 2020 - 7 min

Mohammed bin Salman’s bloody dream city of Neom

$500 billion high-tech city includes forced evictions, vague promises, and the killing of an activist.

Foreign Policy

May 7, 2020 - 9 min

The remaking of Big Pharma in a post-pandemic world

COVID-19 has bucked conventional wisdom on how the industry must operate.

Foreign Policy

May 5, 2020 - 13 min

The future of Korean politics might be this defector from Pyongyang

Former North Korean diplomat to newly elected South Korean politician.

Foreign Policy

May 1, 2020 - 9 min

The tyranny of property

Economist Thomas Piketty’s new book, Capital and Ideology, as reviewed by Foreign Policy.

Foreign Policy

Apr 17, 2020 - 22 min

A most lonely union

The EU is a creature of multilateralism. Can it survive in a deglobalised world?

Foreign Policy

Apr 12, 2020 - 28 min

How to save global capitalism from itself

The former governor of the Reserve Bank of India shares his view.

Foreign Policy

Apr 11, 2020 - 6 min

How the world got Berned

As many are turning to his socialist ideas in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, Sanders leaves the stage.

Foreign Policy

Mar 27, 2020 - 29 min

Death of a whistleblower

The case that puts the Pentagon's watchdog office credibility into question.

Foreign Policy

Mar 23, 2020 - 9 min

The coronavirus crisis is a diplomatic opportunity for the United States and Iran

Foreign Policy

Mar 20, 2020 - 9 min

Will Putin be Russia’s president for life?

A series of choreographed moves have set the stage for him to rule until at least 2036.

Foreign Policy

Mar 16, 2020 - 10 min

Why this oil crash is different

Former special assistant to President Barack Obama explains the latest geopolitical earthquake.

Foreign Policy

Mar 12, 2020 - 8 min

The whole world got Hosni Mubarak wrong

After his death last month, we examine the former Egyptian president's conflicted legacy.

Foreign Policy

Mar 10, 2020 - 14 min

The age of the airship may be dawning again

Listen together: dirigibles ruled the skies once — can they make a comeback?

Foreign Policy

Mar 4, 2020 - 8 min

The West is about to fail the coronavirus test

China made huge mistakes managing the outbreak. The rest of the world may not do any better.

Foreign Policy

Mar 1, 2020 - 9 min

‘Parasite’ has a hidden backstory of middle-class failure and chicken joints

How Bong Joon-ho conjured up a tale of economic insecurity.

Foreign Policy

Feb 23, 2020 - 8 min

Afghans fear yet another civil war

Will the U.S.-Taliban truce bring peace to Afghanistan or further disruption?

Foreign Policy

Feb 17, 2020 - 15 min

How a Samsung heiress helped make ‘Parasite’ a triumph

Why this Academy Award winner wouldn't have been made without Miky Lee's money and influence.

Foreign Policy

Feb 10, 2020 - 10 min

British elites know who isn’t quite their type

Why poshness is more than castles and cream tea - it's about class, power and privilege.

Foreign Policy

Feb 3, 2020 - 9 min

The Wuhan virus: how to stay safe

Ten precautions to protect you from contracting coronavirus.

Foreign Policy

Jan 31, 2020 - 9 min

Europe is destined to age—but not to suffer the consequences

Population ageing is a mark of success - but somehow, it's also a problem in of itself.

Foreign Policy

Jan 30, 2020 - 10 min

The killer algorithms nobody’s talking about

The broader - and potentially - more fatal ramifications of AI as a weapon of war.

Foreign Policy

Jan 24, 2020 - 20 min

Is liberal democracy always the answer?

Guinea-Bissau challenges the imposition of Western forms of government.

Foreign Policy

Jan 14, 2020 - 7 min

64 years later, CIA finally releases details of Iranian coup

In 1953 a coup initiated by the CIA brought down the Iranian Prime Minister.

Foreign Policy

Jan 12, 2020 - 29 min

The Spycraft Revolution

Changes in technology, politics, and business are all transforming espionage.

Foreign Policy

Jan 6, 2020 - 9 min

2020: the end of New START, or the start of something new?

Will 2020 bring a renewed arms race or peace talks?

Foreign Policy

Dec 22, 2019 - 6 min

Artificial intelligence isn’t an arms race

By treating it like one, are the United States missing out on its real potential?

Foreign Policy

Dec 16, 2019 - 8 min

Don’t expect a thaw in Iran

The protests and prisoner exchange may put talks with the United States further off.

Foreign Policy

Dec 13, 2019 - 12 min

The fight for ISIS’s old territory is just beginning

Turkey, Iran, Russia and the Syrian government are jockeying for control of the lands.

Foreign Policy

Dec 11, 2019 - 23 min

Socialism’s biggest hero is a bourgeois British capitalist

He felt little solidarity for workers so why socialists have adopted him anyway?

Foreign Policy

Dec 10, 2019 - 7 min

Yuval Noah Harari: Who will win the race for AI?

China and the US are ahead in the race, but what will this mean for the countries left behind?

Foreign Policy

Dec 5, 2019 - 9 min

The limits of clean energy

Why capturing energy using wind turbines and solar panels may be far from clean.

Foreign Policy

Dec 3, 2019 - 21 min

The Kaiser’s family wants its stuff back. Germany isn’t sure they deserve it

The former royal family lost riches in the 20th century. But were they victims—or enablers of the Nazis?

Foreign Policy

Dec 2, 2019 - 25 min

Mikhail Gorbachev’s Pizza Hut thanksgiving miracle

Former Soviet leader's Pizza Hut commercial has found new fame online.

Foreign Policy

Nov 29, 2019 - 14 min

Evo Morales’ chaotic departure won’t define his legacy

His enfranchisement of Bolivia's indigenous people will be the former president's lasting legacy.

Foreign Policy

Nov 26, 2019 - 21 min

The rise of the cyber-mercenaries

What happens when private firms have cyberweapons as powerful as those owned by governments?

Foreign Policy

Nov 22, 2019 - 9 min

River of the dammed

Ethiopia’s continued efforts to dam the Nile could end in war with Egypt.

Foreign Policy

Nov 18, 2019 - 12 min

The Arab world’s star student

What Tunisia can teach its neighbours about the value of education.

Foreign Policy

Nov 15, 2019 - 14 min

We weren’t ready for a world without walls

Why three decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall we’re no closer to an international community.

Foreign Policy

Nov 14, 2019 - 4 min

The Soviets’ unbreakable code

What the brilliance of the Fialka espionage machine can teach us about the nature of secrecy today.

Foreign Policy

Nov 12, 2019 - 22 min

Economists on the run

Did America’s free-market economists help put a protectionist demagogue in the White House?

Foreign Policy

Nov 7, 2019 - 27 min

How the Iran hawks botched Trump’s Syria withdrawal

Why did U.S. officials consistently misread the threat from Turkey?

Foreign Policy

Nov 6, 2019 - 14 min

Afghanistan’s last jew gets ready for the Taliban—again

A portrait of resistance and calm commitment whilst living under a regime of uncertainty and violence.

Foreign Policy

Nov 3, 2019 - 12 min

Democracy is the planet’s biggest enemy

There are elections looming so how can governments adapt to accommodate the young vote?

Foreign Policy

Nov 2, 2019 - 9 min

Why young Koreans love to splurge

Why blowing your paycheck is sometimes a rational choice.

Foreign Policy

Nov 1, 2019 - 9 min

Space research can save the planet—again

Space programmes are often seen as militaristic splurges, but are these complaints misguided?

Foreign Policy

Oct 28, 2019 - 17 min

Why trade wars are inevitable

The US/China trade war is a lot less personal than it's been painted.

Foreign Policy

Oct 21, 2019 - 12 min

Meet the Afghan women taking their country back — one land mine at a time

In Bamiyan, an all-female demining team provides jobs and hope.

Foreign Policy

Oct 18, 2019 - 12 min

Can American values survive in a Chinese world?

A new book asking readers to consider the ambitions - and fears - of the Chinese elite.