Shadow Government

Iran’s aging supreme leader is ensuring that any successor will stay the course.

U.S. leverage in the region could be higher without a troop presence in Iraq.

Ukraine, the Middle East, and Taiwan are part of an unstable frontier—and require a more principled U.S. strategy.

Cairo says it is all for Palestinians, but it has yet to do much for its neighbors.

Global war is neither a theoretical contingency nor the fever dream of hawks and militarists.

A growing list of people protected from justice highlights a pervasive culture of impunity.

Will it be NATO membership or the Israel model?

It’s in Washington’s interest to make the best possible use of Moscow’s barbaric folly.

Signaling neediness to an adversary has never been effective.

Republicans may disagree on policy, but their principles will help the United States navigate a fragmenting world.

Divided government could be just what is needed to unite Americans around the administration’s China policies.

A renewed focus on great-power rivalry ratifies a sea change in U.S. thinking.

Al Qaeda once again has a safe haven in Afghanistan, endangering Americans.

The country’s fragile postwar democracy is threatened like never before.

On the sad anniversary of the chaotic U.S. pullout, Afghanistan is once again primed for terror.

The newly contested region needs serious U.S. attention.

Decades of ignoring the menaces posed by Russia and China has led the West to a precipice.

The administration wants to support human rights, but it doesn’t have the courage of its convictions.

Egypt and Israel are undermining their peace treaty—and it needs to be stopped.

Washington’s security guarantees now seem worth even less.

There are two ways Washington could exploit this window.

The Ukraine crisis is a reminder of how farsighted diplomacy can resolve conflicts before they spiral out of control.

Russia’s 2014 invasion distracted Washington and delayed the Asia pivot—something the West cannot afford to repeat.

Trump’s ambassador to the OSCE says a Russian invasion of Ukraine is an attack on “all of America’s allies.”

Washington may be tired of the Middle East, but Beijing is just getting started.

Tehran’s march toward the bomb has been enabled by the administration’s refusal to impose consequences.

Joint U.S.-EU carbon border fees could be much more damaging to Russia than sanctions.

The administration is paying for vain hopes with dangerous concessions.

An end to the war will generate a new set of problems.

A U.S.-India alliance would allow both countries to expand their global strength.

Jerusalem needs help from Washington to prevail in a terrible conflict.

It will take an all-out diplomatic blitz to block the director-general’s impending reelection.

Making concessions now will only encourage terrorism.

Leaving Afghanistan will not stop terrorism or leave the threats the United States faces behind.

Each has bipartisan support and could be taken in short order.

Relabeling U.S. soldiers as “noncombat” won’t spare them from militia attacks.

His support for the pipeline abandoned a bipartisan consensus, got nothing in return, and made the world less secure.

Biden’s sacking of Trump appointees at international financial institutions has left a vacuum.

Beijing’s development projects are flashy, fast, and relevant. Why aren’t Washington’s?

The Hariri tribunal hasn’t led to a single arrest. Biden should let it expire and help Lebanon in better ways.

His thinking on arms control proved prescient—but the howls reverberate to this day.

Washington’s myopic focus on Berlin and Brussels is a grave mistake. The rest of Europe shouldn’t be flyover country.

A U.S. State Department czar should lead a campaign to stop China and Russia from gaining control of multilateral agencies.

China’s wolf warrior diplomacy has discovered the Middle East, catching Washington unprepared.

An open letter by former officers calling the president a “Marxist” dictator is a greater threat to U.S. democracy than the ouster of Liz Cheney.

Like its blatant vaccine nationalism, the administration’s unchecked stimulus policies are hurting the world—especially the global poor.

If Biden returns to the Iran nuclear deal, don't be surprised if Israel takes matters into its own hands.

The fuzzy goodwill between Washington and Europe has lulled the continent into a false comfort.

Biden can do the right thing because Turkey has lost strategic significance.

A full withdrawal from Afghanistan is a costly blunder and failure of leadership.

Unless it changes tack, the administration is about to make bad situations even worse.

Janet Yellen’s proposal has all but zero chance of success.

Only three top State Department officials have been allowed to travel abroad. That’s no way to preserve U.S. interests.

Outcomes, not optics, should be the measure of U.S. policy in Europe.

Why has the administration been so half-hearted on a malign Russian influence project?

Biden should unite allies with a giant “Made in the Free World” project.

The administration insists it can succeed where two U.S. presidents already tried and failed.

The largest provider of urgently needed aid is up for a bigger budget, but some Democrats first want to remove its Trump-nominated head.

Some policies may be worth keeping, but Trump’s handling of allies and withdrawals from conflict zones are not among them.

Reagan’s top diplomat ended the Cold War and reshaped the world.

Five former officials from the Trump and George W. Bush administrations share their foreign-policy advice for the new team.

Instead of issuing limp statements, Europe should join Washington to get Maduro’s regime to negotiate with the democratic opposition.

Washington’s response should be swift if Biden expects the world to take his commitment seriously.

Biden’s nominees will face trouble in the Senate unless they prove they learned the lessons of the failed 2015 nuclear agreement.

If China is seeking a reset of relations, it has a strange way of showing it.

Republicans should start off on the right foot as we transition into the opposition.