Winter 2025

Foreign Policy Magazine

Magazine of global politics, economics and ideas.

Foreign Policy Magazine2 min read
Foreign Policy
Andrew Sollinger CEO AND PUBLISHER Ravi Agrawal EDITOR IN CHIEF EXECUTIVE EDITOR Dan Ephron MANAGING EDITOR Audrey Wilson CREATIVE DIRECTOR Lori Kelley EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, FP LIVE Dana Sherne DEPUTY EDITORS Cameron Abadi, Amelia Lester, James Palmer
Foreign Policy Magazine3 min readAmerican Government
From The Editor
EVERYONE I KNOW SEEMS TO HAVE A PET THEORY that perfectly explains why Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential election. The stated reasons are familiar, from inflation and immigration to the culture wars and a global trend against incumbents. Every n
Foreign Policy Magazine5 min readCrime & Violence
Iran Has Every Reason to Go Nuclear
The recent conflicts in the Middle East have ignited open debate among Iran’s political elite over whether the country should weaponize its vast nuclear program. The rationale for doing so, from the Iranian leadership’s perspective, appears more conv
Foreign Policy Magazine6 min readInternational Relations
Assad Must Face Justice
One can only rejoice in the demise of the regime of Bashar al-Assad. Much is uncertain about Syria’s future, but there is no question that the 24 years of Assad’s rule, preceded by 30 years under his comparably brutal father, Hafez al-Assad, have bee
Foreign Policy Magazine5 min read
Only Africans Can Hold Their Governments to Account
In Africa, one doesn’t need to look hard these days to spot crises. Case in point: the broad swath of the continent known as the Sahel. There, in recent years, one country after another—Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Guinea—has seen ineffectual elected g
Foreign Policy Magazine5 min readInternational Relations
Turkey’s BRICS Bridge
Last October’s BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, featured a new participant: Turkey. A Kremlin official leaked in September 2024 that Ankara had applied to join the group, following repeated expressions of interest over the years. A spokesperson for Tur
Foreign Policy Magazine5 min readWorld
Russia Can’t Keep Spending Like This
Srange things are happening in Russia these days. In early October, the country inked a deal to sell chickpeas to Pakistan in exchange for mandarin oranges. A few weeks later, the Russian government advised international participants traveling to the
Foreign Policy Magazine6 min readInternational Relations
Ireland’s New Defense Reality
On Feb. 3, 2022, just three weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine, the Russian navy conducted mysterious exercises in a surprising location: off the Irish coast. Coincidentally, of course, the exercises took place directly above a point dense with tran
Foreign Policy Magazine5 min readWorld
China Is Not the Global South
Is China a part of the global south? Beijing certainly thinks so. For instance, at last year’s Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, a conference held every three years between China and African leaders, Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke of the global
Foreign Policy Magazine6 min readWorld
China Has Become Powerful Before It Is Rich
On Aug. 22, 2024, China commemorated the 120th anniversary of the birth of former leader Deng Xiaoping, whose market reforms catapulted China from communist backwater to global economic power. Chinese President Xi Jinping praised Deng for his contrib
Foreign Policy Magazine6 min readAmerican Government
The Great Deportation of 2025
Adecade ago, the U.S. Congress was on the cusp of passing a bill that would have put most of the nearly 11 million people living illegally in the United States on a path to citizenship. Now, come Jan. 20, the country is set to launch the largest mass
Foreign Policy Magazine6 min readWorld
Xi Wants a Bull Market
Late last September, China’s stock market, beleaguered by weak economic indicators and a crumbling property sector, experienced an unexpected rally. After previous government hesitation over major interventions, new stimulus measures sparked a surge
Foreign Policy Magazine5 min readAmerican Government
Lula and Trump Might Get Along
In 1817, U.S. President James Monroe sent lawyer Henry M. Brackenridge to South America to advise on U.S. policy toward the region. The vast Portuguese colony of Brazil stood out to Brackenridge in part because it was not experiencing the violent uph
Foreign Policy Magazine6 min readAmerican Government
Why Mexico Elected a Woman President First
Mexico and the United States both held presidential elections in 2024, but along the campaign trail, two different conversations were taking place. In Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum rallied voters with the catchphrase “It’s time for women.” She beat her n
Foreign Policy Magazine9 min readCrime & Violence
A Requiem for American Renewal
At its inception, the Biden administration proudly declared that “America is back.” The 2022 National Security Strategy announced that by “leveraging our national strengths and rallying a broad coalition of allies and partners, we will advance our vi
Foreign Policy Magazine12 min read
Walled Off
Donald Trump’s reelection as U.S. president is sending shockwaves around the world, but his victory is just the latest episode in a continuing saga. The old Western consensus in favor of globalization started breaking down in the 1990s and early 2000
Foreign Policy Magazine6 min readAmerican Government
Class Is In Session
Exit polls from the U.S. presidential election indicated an approximate 15-point swing toward Donald Trump among voters earning less than $50,000 a year, the poorest block of voters in the United States. For the first time since the 1960s, a majority
Foreign Policy Magazine8 min readAmerican Government
The art Of The Deal
Donald Trump is commonly described as transactional. At some level, however, all leaders are transactional. What defines the U.S. president-elect is his unabashed opportunism, often at the expense of values, alliances, and even treaties. For Trump, w
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Foreign Policy Magazine7 min read
It’s A Madman’s World
WHEN DONALD TRUMP FIRST RAN for U.S. president in 2016, he sounded mad an awful lot of the time—in both senses of the word. Trump had no problem displaying anger on the campaign trail. In a 2016 Republican primary debate, he leaned into this emotion,
Foreign Policy Magazine13 min read
Misunderstood Merchant Ivory
If it weren’t for an overlap of appointments at a San Francisco art dealership, we might never have the cache of extraordinary films—43 in all—made by Merchant Ivory Productions from 1961 to 2007. In 1956, James Ivory had just completed a short film,
Foreign Policy Magazine6 min read
Zombie Diplomacy
On recent trip, I found myself in the National Museum of Ireland staring at the preserved body known as Old Croghan Man. He died a brutal death: strangled, stabbed, decapitated, severed in half at the waist, and drowned. Yet I could see the pores on
Foreign Policy Magazine1 min read
An Innovative Approach to Managing International Crises
Focused on the intersection of AI and biosecurity, this simulation was produced in partnership with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) as an official side-event at the 2024 Munich Security Conference. At the 2023 Paris Peace F
Foreign Policy Magazine6 min read
Modi’s Youth Army
In the opening pages of Devika Rege’s debut novel, Quarterlife, one of the protagonists, Naren Agashe, goes to the Lincoln Zoo in Nebraska to buy a coffee. After an older man threatens him at his usual café, Naren doesn’t want to take any chances: He
Foreign Policy Magazine8 min read
Monkey Business
When I was a little boy, I thought Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, was the greatest hero of all. Stronger than Superman, sharper than Spider-Man, he fought, tricked, and joked his way across my father’s bedtime stories, freely borrowed from Xiyouji (Jou
Foreign Policy Magazine4 min read
Razing Hell
Bulldozers are ubiquitous on construction sites the world over. But in India, they are also something more. Bulldozers have become a symbol, a perpetrator of a divisive and violent brand of retributive justice that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bhar
Foreign Policy Magazine2 min read
What In The World?
1. Which leader visited Haiti in September to assess the progress of the multinational security support mission there? a. U.S. President Joe Biden b. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva c. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres d. Kenyan P

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