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Editor’s Note: Last week we discussed the rise of China’s economy and why some U.S. fears of Chinese dominance might be overstated. Yet regardless of the speed of China’s economic growth, its military mo...
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Editor’s Note: China’s huge population and spectacular economic growth since the 1980s at first gave rise to fears, and now a sense of inevitability, that China will surpass the United States in the 21st...
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Editor’s Note: After the United States helped overthrow Muammar Qaddafi in 2011, Libya was put on the back burner of U.S. policy even as its problems mounted. Moments of horrific anti-U.S. violence, like...
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Editor's Note: “Lone wolf” terrorists—those who strike on their own without links to an established organization—are a nightmare for counterterrorism officials. They have no ranks to be penetrated, and o...
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Editor’s Note: Foreign fighters in Iraq and Syria are a bit of an obsession for those of us at the Foreign Policy Essay. In this contribution, we’re pleased to go deep on the problem in Scandinavia—a sur...
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That counterterrorism instruments often fail is no surprise—terrorists are tough targets, after all. At times, however, these instruments can actually backfire. Such “blowback” can take many forms and is...
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Editor’s Note: Political groups representing ethnic, religious, or other minorities have a range of options for how to engage with the state, from nonviolent tactics such as protests and strikes to viole...
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In January 2014, two French teenage boys ran away from their homes in Toulouse in search of adventure. Like a few hundred other young Frenchmen and over 2,000 Europeans, they looked for that adventure in...
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Editor’s Note: Under President Xi Jinping, China appears more aggressive and dictatorial: a worrisome combination as China’s wealth makes it more influential and helps it build a stronger military.
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Editor's Note: Sanctions and other economic tools are increasingly the foreign policy instruments of first resort. They seem to harness U.S. economic might and convey strength while avoiding the human an...
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Editor’s Note: The savage fighting in Syria and now Iraq seems to grow worse every month. As the U.S. role in the conflict grows, so too does the need to understand the motivations of the fighters, inclu...
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The Arab world’s foreign fighter problem makes the West’s concerns seem minor. Specific numbers should be treated with suspicion, but the current estimate is that there are roughly 15,000 foreign fighter...