Peace

Biden and Erdoğan fist-bump at NATO meeting.

Checking in on democratic peace: Part II

Critical State

Critical State, our foreign policy newsletter, takes a deep dive into a core principle of democratic peace theory — the idea that democratic states don’t fight wars with one another. 

A mock North Korea's Scud-B missile, center right, and South Korean missiles are displayed at Korea War Memorial Museum in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, March 18, 2021. 

The leftovers: What happens to foreign policy in power transitions? Part II

Critical State
In this Sept. 1, 2016 file photo, a Jesuit statue is seen in front of Freedom Hall, formerly named Mulledy Hall, on the Georgetown University campus in Washington. 

‘Our goal is to heal’: Jesuits and descendants of the enslaved reflect on landmark agreement

Justice

In Praise of Good Men

Arts, Culture & Media
aleppo

Foreign policy and fragile states: A town hall discussion

Conflict
A general view shows part of Jerusalem's Old City and the Dome of the Rock.

Why moving the US embassy to Jerusalem is so controversial

Conflict

President Donald Trump announced his decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move the US embassy there.

Staffan de Mistura

There’s ‘higher potential’ for achieving peace in Syria, UN envoy says

Conflict

Staffan de Mistura ruled out any breakthrough at this week’s negotiations to end a war that has claimed more than 320,000 lives and displaced more than half of Syria’s population. But he pointed to a new ceasefire brokered with US and Russian help, covering three provinces in southern Syria, as one source of hope.

FARC rebels pose with an unidentified girl holding a weapon in southern Colombia in this undated photo confiscated by the Colombian police and released to the media on November 12, 2009. Police said that the photo was found on the body of a rebel FARC kil

She misses being a guerrilla, but this former FARC fighter is starting a new life back home

Conflict

When she was 14, Xiomara picked up a gun and joined Colombia’s Marxist guerrilla group, the FARC. She stayed in the wilderness for 15 years. Now she faces the challenges of thousands of other women who have left the rebel group: how to come back.

Anya Cardenas (l) Monica Lozano (right)

Colombian women struggle after ‘no’ vote against peace accord

Conflict

Sunday’s rejection of the peace accord stunned many Colombians, and many female victims struggle to understand what it means to them

U.S. President Barack Obama meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval office for the first time since the Israeli leader lost his battle against the Iran nuclear deal.

‘Palestinians are knee deep in despair, and Israelis are knee deep in denial’

Conflict

An Israeli resident laments, “Hatred in Jerusalem has been more popularized, more endemic, than any time that I can remember in the 43 years that I’ve been living here.”