
This Is the Year Democracies Fight Back
Liberal states have been on the defensive for too long.

Afghanistan Wanted Chinese Mining Investment. It Got a Chinese Spy Ring Instead.
Desperate to jump-start its economy, Kabul is sick of waiting for Beijing to tap the country’s mineral wealth.

How Saudi Arabia Restored Its U.S. Influence Machine After the Khashoggi Murder
Biden’s pause on arms sales to the Saudis underscores how lobbying will be even more crucial for Riyadh.

Beijing’s Welcome Gift to Biden: More Threats and Tensions
If China is seeking a reset of relations, it has a strange way of showing it.

Why Attempts to Build a New Anti-China Alliance Will Fail
The big strategic game in Asia isn’t military but economic.

Sisi’s Last Stand
The Egyptian president enjoyed relative impunity during the Trump years. Now, an uptick in repression at home—and criticism from abroad—may end up spelling his downfall.

The Qatar Blockade Is Over, but the Gulf Crisis Lives On
Efforts at regional reconciliation have done nothing to address the core differences that divide Qatar and Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain.

What a New Iran Nuclear Deal Really Requires
To get Washington’s Gulf partners on board, Biden needs an actual strategy for protecting them and ways to make them contribute to it.

The Capitol Coup Attempt Was the Far-Right’s Opening Shot
Jan. 6 was a classic example of propaganda by the deed—a revolutionary approach favored by everyone from 19th-century anarchists to Osama bin Laden.

10 Years After the Tunisian Uprising
Foreign Policy recommends: Revolution 1.

Putin Has Learned From Belarus in Handling the Navalny Protests
The Russian regime has barely started to tap its vast toolkit for violence and intimidation.

Was Portugal’s Election a Breakthrough for the Far-Right?
The incumbent president won in a landslide, but a populist right-wing candidate raised eyebrows in a country that has so far avoided extremes.

Taking Trump Down Has Exposed Social Media’s Inherent Contradictions
Capitalism is making decisions that democracy should.

You Can’t Blame Russia for Trump
America’s reality TV autocrat was a homegrown creation.

Italy Dives Headfirst Into Political Crisis During Pandemic
Conte’s ruling coalition is out—but that may not be the end for the prime minister.

French Ambassador: EU Working Toward ‘Common Action’ With Biden on Iran, COVID-19
But Philippe Etienne says France won’t surrender its dream of “strategic autonomy.”

The Narc, Part 2
With Steve Murphy, DEA

Biden’s U.N. Pick Assembles Team of Foreign-Policy Veterans
Linda Thomas-Greenfield is staffing her New York and Washington offices with a range of career and political foreign-policy hands with extensive experience in U.N. affairs.