Politics

United States International Human Rights Climate Change

A Failure of Imagination

The French left has not only abandoned its traditional constituents, it has also been unable to defend a positive vision of the multicultural society that France has become.

April 21, 2022 issue

Jackson Lears

The Forgotten Crime of War Itself

In his new book, Samuel Moyn argues that efforts to humanize war with smarter weaponry or sanctify it with moral cant have obscured the task of making peace the first goal of foreign policy.

April 21, 2022 issue

Benjamin Nathans

Bureaucrat’s Honor

Three memoirs by Trump administration officials reveal the integrity and moral discipline of the so-called deep state in the face of corruption and philistinism.

April 21, 2022 issue

David Cole

When Rights Went Right

Is the American conception of constitutional rights too absolute?

April 21, 2022 issue

Fintan O’Toole

The Last of Her Kind

Angela Merkel emerged from the ruins of the Eastern bloc as a spectacular example of the way the collapse of an old regime might create a much more benign sense of opportunity.

April 7, 2022 issue

Fred Kaplan

‘A Bridge Too Far’

Even the most ardent advocates of NATO expansion after the implosion of the USSR realized that it had limits—and one of those limits was Ukraine.

April 7, 2022 issue

Jacob Heilbrunn

The Hawks Ascending

Russia’s war on Ukraine has opened up a new front in Washington’s foreign policy elite, mobilizing veterans of the cold war and Iraq. Especially on the right, a fierce fight is in prospect.

March 14, 2022

Howard W. French

Slavery, Empire, Memory

For nearly two centuries Britain has attempted to minimize the importance of slavery to its economic prosperity.

April 7, 2022 issue

The End of ‘Roe’?

Melissa Gira Grant

Policing Womanhood

For groups like Alliance Defending Freedom, the erosion of abortion rights and trans rights are complementary pathways to building a Christian nation.

May 15, 2022

Elizabeth A. Reese

Unsteady Ground

Native people have known for a long time that in this country, rights—whether to remain, to pray, to vote, or even to live—are impermanent and fickle things, subject to revision by those in power.

May 14, 2022

Catherine Coleman Flowers

Our Lives in Their Hands

If state governments truly cared about the lives of poor women or our children, they wouldn’t poison our water and pollute our air. They can’t be trusted with our bodies.

May 13, 2022

Sherrilyn Ifill

Stealing the Crown Jewels

Justice Alito purports to place the future of abortion in the hands of women voters—despite abetting the disenfranchisement of Black and Latina women.

May 12, 2022

Sophie Pinkham

Trade Exceptions

In Brittney Griner, the Putin administration may have found the perfect hostage to leverage into a high-profile prisoner swap.

August 14, 2022

Lola Seaton

‘Hope You’re Staying Cool’

The July heatwave that brought chaos to London has changed the way Brits see the sun.

July 31, 2022

Antonia Hitchens

‘Who Should Die for Me?’

In Estonia, the threat of Russian invasion and memories of Soviet occupation have led thousands to volunteer for their national defense.

July 29, 2022

Ian Johnson

Hong Kong from the Inside

Four books about Hong Kong show how the city’s once-thriving culture of political engagement has been obliterated under Chinese control, though it may still retain its position as a global financial capital.

August 18, 2022 issue

Fintan O’Toole

The Irish Lesson

If the purpose of abortion bans is to actually reduce the rate at which women terminate pregnancies, the Irish experience shows how utterly ineffectual they are.

August 18, 2022 issue

Mark Danner

We’re in an Emergency—Act Like It!

At a time when the threat of authoritarianism is rising, Democrats have a duty to make crystal clear to voters what is at stake in the November elections.

August 18, 2022 issue

Ian Bassin

The Attorney General’s Choice

Merrick Garland’s job in weighing a Trump indictment is not to heal the nation.

July 22, 2022

Vicente L. Rafael

The Return of the Marcoses

The level of support in the Philippines for Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. cannot be explained by social media disinformation or sheer coercion alone.

July 21, 2022