Former CIA intelligence analyst Susan Hasler discusses the “ziggurat” model of radicalization that she and her colleague Cindy Storer built and used while working on counterterrorism efforts.
By testing ICBMs and powerful nuclear weapons, the North Korean leader has placed himself in a strategic trap that threatens to leave his country at China's mercy.
By Artyom Lukin
The East Asian nation is at the geographical nexus of the rivalry among China, Russia and the United States. It faces a difficult task navigating its precarious position.
By Jeff Goodson
Rather than trumpet Russia's praises overseas, Moscow's propaganda machine is focused more on undermining the Kremlin's enemies.
Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis fought Saddam Hussein, engineered attacks on Western embassies and took on the Islamic State. His death in the same strike that killed Iran's Qassem Soleimani increased local hostility to the U.S. presence in Iraq.
The country's new president is likely to use the questions surrounding the implementation of the 'safe third country' agreement to wrest additional support from the U.S.
By Lino Miani
By sending Turkish troops to defend Libya's U.N.-backed government, President Erdogan hopes to force a cease-fire that will protect his country's oil and gas interests in the Mediterranean and burnish his regional reputation.
By Sinan Ciddi
While there are few obvious historical analogies for the political crisis Britain's scheduled exit from the European Union has precipitated, there is one suggestive parallel -- and it prompts some sobering thoughts.
By Ian Morris
Whether and how people celebrate Christmas is clearly a complicated affair, bearing only a subtle relationship to Christianity itself. The contemporary, increasingly international version of Christmas is less a religious festival than a celebration of affluence, modernity, and above all Westernness. Without anyone willing it, Christmas has become part of a package of Western soft power.
By Ian Morris
The world's stronger powers hold the upper hand over its weaker ones but the underdogs may find a few "stones" to help them hold their own.
Beijing has made a point of publicizing legal changes since a Chinese scientist claimed to have genetically engineered twins last year, but it's not clear how effective the reforms will be without a full accounting of the scandal.
States, businesses and individuals, eager to avoid duties and political frictions and penalties, are increasingly using commercial transactions to disguise illicit money transfers.
