In Venezuela, it looks like Russia is once again playing a weak hand well. The US has imposed crippling sanctions on the state-owned oil company and lifted them on officials who have joined the opposition, such as the intelligence chief. And yet, with the support of Russia, Venezuelan strongman…

For more than 30 years, successive US administrations have called Iran what it is: a state sponsor of terrorism. Leaders of its military and intelligence agencies have been sanctioned, while the terror groups Iran supports have faced military action as well as sanctions. Until now, however, the…

Turkey’s elections on Sunday were a political earthquake for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamist coalition. His party lost control of Ankara and Istanbul, where Erdogan was mayor from 1994 to 1998. Kurdish nationalists won contests in eight provinces despite a government campaign of…

In the aftermath of last week’s massacre of 50 Muslims at a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, it has become common to equate white nationalism with radical Islam. A typical comment came from Senator Elizabeth Warren: “In the same way that ISIS and al-Qaeda terrorism pose a threat to the US,” she…

Four decades ago, in the months leading up to the Islamic Revolution in Iran, the exiled Ruhollah Khomeini made many promises. He spoke about respecting the rights of minorities, democracy and equality for women. Western intellectuals like the late French philosopher Michel Foucault praised…

Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, appeared to undermine two premises of President Donald Trump’s foreign policy on Tuesday. First he said that North Korea was not likely to give up its nuclear weapons. Then he said that Iran was still complying with the international agreement to…

For the last month, it looked as though President Donald Trump’s campaign of maximum pressure against Iran would include a loophole. Sanctions on Iran’s banks, oil exports, ships and ports, lifted in 2015 as part of a nuclear weapons agreement that Trump exited in May, will be reimposed on…

President Donald Trump’s foreign policy is often caricatured as a mass of contradictions. He rails against the dumb wars of his predecessors, but has yet to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan, Iraq or Syria. He taunted and threatened North Korea’s tyrannical leader, only to meet him later in…