One of the greatest advantages the United States has over China has been its soft power—the ability to persuade other countries, particularly allies and partners, to go along with its wants without ...

When U.S. President Donald Trump visited Israel in October 2025, he was greeted by the Israeli public and the country’s political leaders as a savior, having brokered a deal to end the war in Gaza.

Ukraine has been putting up valiant resistance, but its determination cannot disguise the fact that it is losing the war. Russia controls a large swath of Ukrainian territory, and Kyiv has little ...

In February 2025, when U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order temporarily suspending enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a law prohibiting firms from engaging in bribery ...

CHRISTOPHER S. CHIVVIS is Director of the American Statecraft Program and a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

NATE SWANSON is Resident Senior Fellow and Director of the Iran Strategy Project at the Atlantic Council. He was Director for Iran at the National Security Council between 2022 and 2025. In the spring ...

It is easy to see why Trump would believe that the warnings about another attack on Iran are overwrought and that he can repeat his formula of decisive action and a clean exit. But this time is ...

And the United States’ vested interest in its allies’ security offered assurance to Japan and other countries that they would be protected if conflict came to their shores. National security leaders ...

In fact, given the economy’s high dependence on oil revenue, some kind of recovery is all but certain. U.S. President Donald Trump has allowed Venezuela to begin selling its oil in global markets. As ...

Over the past two decades, China has transformed from a strategically weak energy power, dependent on imports of oil and gas, into the world leader in clean energy. Today, China produces the most wind ...

Instead, military involvement in domestic law enforcement becomes normalized, power concentrates in the executive, civilian institutions weaken, and civil liberties erode. Democratic institutions ...

The war in Ukraine is, at once, a past and future conflict. On the one hand, Russia’s invasion resembles World War I, with static frontlines, trenches, and vast areas of no mans ...