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How democracies learn to goose-step

In January 1934, the New York Times published an essay by journalist Harold Callender on a new phenomenon sweeping Nazi Germany: Gleichschaltung....

yesterday 50

Kaushik Basu

Repeat after me: Never, ever underestimate China.

From U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war to AI developments, 2025 has been full of dramatic twists and turns. One of the most consequential...

yesterday 40

Shuli Ren

AI Is getting dangerously good at political persuasion

For some time now, scientists have tried to offer a glimmer of hope that artificial intelligence would make a positive contribution to democracy....

yesterday 40

Parmy Olson

Buckle up for a volatile year of Trump-Xi, Taiwan and Kim

This is the season when columnists turn to prophecy and then congratulate themselves a year later for getting some of it right. I’m afraid I’m...

yesterday 50

Karishma Vaswani

Science still made incredible breakthroughs while under attack

It was a tough year for science in the U.S. Thousands of research grants, including more than 3,800 from the National Institutes of Health and the...

wednesday 4

F.d. Flam

Turning the Monroe Doctrine into 'Donroe' is awful geopolitics

The United States has bombed and sunk dozens of boats alleged to be carrying drugs in the waters near Venezuela, killing at numerous civilians...

wednesday 2

Andreas Kluth

Chinese diplomacy goes to the dogs — literally

My parents’ first child was a dog. Fifty years after she died, I remain convinced that she was more special to them than me. (I’m not sure I blame...

wednesday 40

Brad Glosserman

Give Ukraine back its future

For over a decade, much of the West has been pondering how to manage Ukraine’s inevitable subordination to Russia. Yes, we’ve said we stand with...

wednesday 5

Chrystia Freeland

Five reasons the U.S. can be optimistic about the 2026 economy

One year ago, businesses — especially CEOs — were optimistic about the U.S. economy in 2025, expecting lower taxes and more market-friendly...

wednesday 40

Allison Schrager

Building infrastructure for the AI age

The London Underground, the world’s oldest subway system, opened in 1863. Around the same time, London’s modern sewage system was designed by civil...

wednesday 40

Diane Coyle

Europe faces some tough wartime decisions

It is past time that Europeans get serious about Ukraine. With Russian President Vladimir Putin posing the greatest threat to European security...

wednesday 3

Mark Leonard

Gambling with the dollar’s future

Notwithstanding some ups and downs, the U.S. dollar has been the uncontested global reserve currency since the end of World War II. That status has...

wednesday 40

Carmen M. Reinhart

What exactly does ‘off the record’ mean in Japan?

One of the most closely followed news stories in Japan this month was the so-called off-the-record nuclear armament remarks made by a senior...

30.12.2025 5

Kuni Miyake

The positive climate news you may have missed this year

So much climate news comes out in any given week that it can be hard to keep up with it all. Much is gloomy, but there are positive developments...

30.12.2025 60

David Fickling

Memo to liberal democracies: Beware ‘security autism’

In the hushed corridors of Tokyo’s security establishment, a taboo has been broken. For the first time since 1967, serious strategists are openly...

30.12.2025 70

Stephen R. Nagy

Here’s the bad climate news you missed this year

It might have seemed in 2025 that every piece of bad news for the global climate and energy transition had some sort of connection to President...

30.12.2025 3

David Fickling

Multilateralism is not dead yet

With conflicts raging in some 50 countries, tariff wars becoming the new (abnormal) norm, and global economic growth falling to its slowest pace in...

30.12.2025 50