War and National Security

Portrait of a Foreign Policy Failure

Counterterrorism always trumped diplomacy in Afghanistan—with devastating and enduring consequences.

Blood Ties

Trump’s “invasion” narrative and the real story of pain in America.

The “Terrorists” in My Grandmother’s Neighborhood

Not only a tool to justify U.S. and Israeli intervention, the label is increasingly dividing Iranian society from within.

The New Old Warfare

The self-serving myths of a new wave of defense tech, from Palantir’s Gotham to Israel’s Gospel.

Memory Lags

Awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Nihon Hidankyo, an association of Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors, is a small step to facing the truth so long denied.

The View from Besieged Beirut

In the wake of exploding pagers, universalism plunges into the abyss.

The Extortionist’s Doctrine

On the persistence of U.S. nuclear deterrence policy.

Semiconductor Island

The colonial making of Taiwan’s chip supremacy.

The Harris Doctrine

Would Kamala Harris’s foreign policy depart from Biden’s? Clues from the work of her national security advisor, Philip Gordon.

Rule by Militia

Governments wracked by debt have found militias an efficient way of managing restive populations.

Leadership and Liberation: An Exchange

Jodi Dean responds to Ayça Çubukçu’s “Many Speak for Palestine.”

The Real Scandal of Campus Protest

It’s not that there has been too much student protest. It’s that there has not been much, much more of it.

Psychic Numbing

For Robert Jay Lifton, treating veterans’ trauma was an antiwar tool. How did PTSD, the diagnosis he helped create, come to accommodate state violence?

A Crack in Putin’s Armor

What the concert hall attack means for the Russian leader’s future.

Naming the Unnamed War

Bertrand Tavernier’s daring documentary about the Algerian revolution sought to break the silence in France.

A Menacing Silence

Why is the reality of Palestinian suffering denied in the Israeli consciousness?

“We Are Neither Prophets nor Mad”

An interview with poet Fady Joudah about writing his latest collection amid war in Gaza.

Aaron Bushnell and the Power of Protest

A Vietnam veteran on the political legacy of self-sacrifice and antiwar movements.

The War on Hospitals

Israel’s attacks on health care workers and facilities in Gaza are unprecedented.

Seeing Genocide

Israel’s weaponization of images since October 7 obfuscates its genocidal campaign against Palestinians.

Letter from Berlin

On the situation in Germany in the wake of October 7.

More than Genocide

The law occludes the abhorrent violence routinely perpetrated by states in the name of self-defense.

The Free Speech Exception

Support for Palestinian rights is facing a McCarthyite backlash.

Letter from Israel

In the aftermath of October 7.

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