Essays

The “Egypt The Future” economic development conference reaffirmed the primacy of the strongman in Egyptian politics. That may win the hearts and minds of some global capitalists, but will Tahrir Square revolutionaries buy it?

Donald Trump speaks in Ladd-Peebles Stadium during “Thank You” tour, Mobile, Dec. 17, 2016. Dan Anderson/ZUMA Wire

The Year of Living Dangerously

By Stein Ringen

In the United States and Britain, the Trump and Brexit campaigns in 2016 embraced and encouraged voices of xenophobia, fear of the other, racism, and divisiveness that we thought had been marginalized in the modern era. To understand the democratic crisis, pay attention to the social conditions of democracy.

Aftermath of Syrian airstrikes, Aleppo, Dec. 4, 2016. Ibrahim Ebu Leys/Anadolu Images

Picking Up the Middle East Pieces

By Perry Cammack

Donald Trump’s tough talk of defeating Islamic terrorists, ripping up the Iran nuclear deal, and barring Muslims from entering the U.S. suggests a sharp pivot in Middle East policy, but could be surprising continuity with Barack Obama’s approach to the region.

U.S. Navy ships steaming in formation during a drill in the South China Sea, Oct. 13, 2016. Will Gaskill/United States Navy

Uncharted Waters

By David Bell Mislan

Judging from his campaign rhetoric, Donald Trump aims to radically alter American foreign policy, but broad political and social forces constrain any American president’s foreign policy agenda.

The Meaning of Trump

By Donald T. Critchlow

Donald Trump’s anti-establishment campaign confounded the Republican Party, foreign policy experts, and the news media. His mobilization of an angry electorate has reshaped the contours of American politics for years to come.

Hillary Clinton’s Imperial Feminism

By Zillah Eisenstein

Does the gender of a world leader matter? Having a female U.S. president might break a glass ceiling, but the policies of the woman holding the office could still leave women in the basement.

Barack Obama’s Presidency

By James T. Kloppenberg

Obamacare. The Wall Street bailout. Race relations. The Iran deal. The Arab upheavals. How will history judge the 44th American president? Much will depend on what happens after his successor takes office.

Unraveling in the Kremlin

By Lilia Shevtsova

Vladimir Putin intervened in Ukraine and Syria to mobilize domestic support for Russia’s decaying political system. But how long can the Kremlin survive on false images, fake agendas, and manufactured complexes?

Pakistan’s Democratic Opportunity

By Madiha Afzal

Amid a Taliban insurgency and discontent with government officials, Pakistanis remain strongly attached to free elections. But until politicians improve the standard of governance and the popular military recedes from politics, democracy will remain incomplete.

America’s Misadventures in the Middle East

By Chas W. Freeman, Jr.

Decades of U.S. policy blunders add up to a foreign policy disaster of historic proportions. With the region in transition, will Washington abandon delusion and deal with the region’s realities? Don’t bet on it.

After the Paris Agreement

By Hoda Baraka and Payal Parekh

By The United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic

The international deal to combat global warming comes into force in 2016. For climate activists, it’s the beginning of a new stage in the struggle to hold nations accountable for their greenhouse emissions.

The Yazidi Genocide

Beheading of men, rape, and enslavement of women—the destruction of a minority ethnic community is among the crimes committed by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Will the group be brought to justice for its persecution of the Yazidis?

Jorge Bergoglio, then archbishop of Buenos Aires, at a drug rehabilitation center, Buenos Aires, 2011. Fernando Massobrio/GDA via Associated Press

The Education of Pope Francis

By Paul Vallely

When Jorge Mario Bergoglio became the Roman Catholic pope in 2013, he took his name from Francis of Assisi and dedicated himself to championing the poor. The first non-European pontiff in a thousand years, and the first from the southern hemisphere, he launched his papacy with a condemnation of capitalism’s culture of waste and indifference to poverty.

Children playing in a polluted river, Jakarta, Sept. 19, 2012. Enny Nuraheni/Reuters

Our Common Home

By Pope Francis

In an extract from the papal encyclical Laudato Si’, the bishop of Rome makes an impassioned plea to save the planet from ecological destruction: “We must regain the conviction that we need one another, that we have a shared responsibility for others and the world.”

ISIS fighters appear in a video online on Feb. 4, 2015.

How ISIS Will End

By Mark Juergensmeyer

The Islamic State group is losing territory in Iraq and Syria, but it may have staying power in one of its three permutations: ISIS is simultaneously a movement for Sunni Muslim empowerment, a global jihadist movement, and an apocalyptic cult.

The European Central Bank, Frankfurt, Feb. 22, 2015. Mikka Luster (mikka.is)

Life and Death of the Euro

By Jacques Sapir

Europe’s response to the Greek debt crisis in 2015 exposed European cooperation and solidarity as a hollow claim. The euro has become a Greek tragedy, resulting in falling incomes, rising unemployment, and fraying social fabric. Saving the European Union may require killing the single currency.

Campaign poster for National Front leader Marine Le Pen, Frejus, March 18, 2014. Eric Gaillard/Reuters

Marine Le Pen’s Challenge

By Alexandre Dézé and Nonna Mayer and Sylvain Crépon