International

Ukrainian Lessons at the Train Station

A diverse community of volunteers has gathered on the Polish border to assist Ukrainian refugees, but the outlook for Ukrainian refugees already in Europe is often bleak.

December 8, 2022 issue

Peter Canby

The Death Squad Dossier

Decades after Guatemala’s long civil war, a chronicle of government kidnapping and disappearance is bringing former officials to trial. Will there be justice for the victims?

December 8, 2022 issue

Adam Hochschild

The Cruelties of Empire

Whether they were labeled internal revolts, police actions, or states of emergency, colonial wars were especially brutal.

November 24, 2022 issue

Alizeh Kohari

Pakistan Submerged

Climate change and a “monsoon on steroids” bring catastrophic flooding to Pakistan.

November 24, 2022 issue

Geoffrey Wheatcroft

The Limits of Press Power

To what extent did newspapers influence public opinion in the US and Britain before and during World War II?

November 3, 2022 issue

Christopher de Bellaigue

Khamenei’s Dilemma

As protests in Iran continue, the regime’s attempts to crack down on them may create an unstoppable spiral of state violence and popular fury.

November 24, 2022 issue

Yasmine El Rashidi

#FreeAlaa

Alaa Abd el-Fattah’s imprisonment has never been about what he did but rather who he is, what he represents.

November 12, 2022

Vincent Bevins

Bigger than Bolsonaro

After four years in power, a movement created by elite campaigns has built a mass base.

October 28, 2022

On Ukraine

Timothy Snyder

Putin’s Philosopher of Russian Fascism

Ivan Ilyin provided a metaphysical and moral justification for political totalitarianism, which he expressed in practical outlines for a fascist state. Today, his ideas have been revived and celebrated by Vladimir Putin.

March 16, 2018

Tim Judah

Holding On in Irpin

For the moment, the Ukrainians are winning by simply not losing.

April 7, 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

Tim Judah

Ukraine on the Brink

It is quite normal to refuse to believe that you are about to be engulfed by a cataclysm.

March 24, 2022 issue

Antonia Hitchens

Among Ukraine’s Foreign Fighters

The spectacle of popular resistance to the Russian invasion has drawn thousands of volunteers to the international legion. But who are they, and what motivates them?

March 26, 2022

Olesya Khromeychuk and Sonya Bilocerkowycz

The Nation Ukraine Has Become

The reason resistance to the Russian invasion is so strong is that the country’s people already chose a new, decisively democratic identity.

March 25, 2022

The Latest

Fred Kaplan

Putin’s Miscalculation

After two decades of reforming its armed forces, Russia expected a lightning victory in Ukraine, but the ill-starred invasion has revealed their deficiencies.

February 9, 2023 issue

Neal Ascherson

Sonnets for the State

A new book recounts the history of the Circle of Writing Chekists, a group of officials in the East German Ministry of State Security who wrote poetry as a weapon in the class struggle.

February 9, 2023 issue

Tim Judah

Reconstructing Ukraine

Optimists and pessimists alike have anxiously begun to weigh the country’s prospects after the war is over.

January 11, 2023

Tim Judah

Ukraine’s Volunteers

Even more impressive than Ukraine’s will to fight is the vast network of citizens who are supporting the armed forces and helping those in need of food and supplies.

January 19, 2023 issue

Sophie Neiman

Fear and Oil in Uganda

Its backers claim that the East African Crude Oil Pipeline will be a financial boon for Uganda, but families along its route claim that they have been inadequately compensated for their lost land, and activists opposing its construction have been harassed and arrested.

January 19, 2023 issue

Ursula Lindsey

‘Focus on the Football’

This year’s World Cup in Qatar has become both a referendum on its host’s human rights record and a space for competing gestures of solidarity.

December 9, 2022

Cristina Florea

Ukraine’s Long Self-Determination

Ukrainians have declared their independence five times—each time, defining their nation anew.

December 7, 2022

Frederic Wehrey

Libya’s Perfect Storm

Climate change has brought a dangerous new dimension to the country’s political strife.

December 3, 2022

Christopher R. Browning

Adenauer’s Bargain

A new book argues that a delayed reckoning with the Holocaust was necessary for democratization in postwar West Germany.

December 22, 2022 issue

Howard W. French

Naipaul’s Unreal Africa

A Bend in the River was acclaimed for its brave truth-telling, but it fails to imagine Africa as anything other than unchanging, untamed, and primitive.

December 22, 2022 issue