Hal Brands

Nature and geopolitics can interact in nasty ways. The historian Geoffrey Parker has argued that changing weather patterns drove war, revolution and upheaval during a long global crisis in the 17th century. More recently, climate change has opened new trade routes, resources and rivalries in the…

China’s push for global supremacy is playing out in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, but also in the quieter coercion that Beijing practices every day. The latest target of this pressure is Lithuania, which is paying an economic price for snubbing China diplomatically. The case is a…

President Joe Biden has a big problem: deterring Russia from invading Ukraine and starting the largest land war in Europe since 1945. In an attempt to de-escalate the situation, he held a two-hour virtual meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday. Yet Biden has a bigger problem,…

When President Joe Biden took office, he vowed to pursue “extreme competition” with China as part of a historic struggle between democracy and autocracy. Now, his administration is saying that it wants “healthy” competition, in which mutually accepted “guardrails” prevent Washington and Beijing…

The US-China rivalry can be seen through many lenses. It is, as President Joe Biden has said, a competition between democracy and autocracy. It is a contest between an established power and the upstart seeking to claim its place. It is a race to master advanced technologies that will drive economic…

Three times in the modern era, Japan has reacted to profound international shifts with a sweeping remake of its foreign policy — in ways that drastically altered global history. The nation is now undergoing a leadership transition, as the job of prime minister passes from Yoshihide Suga to Fumio…

America may say that it’s done with nation-building, but don’t believe it. Following a disillusioning war in Afghanistan, President Joe Biden declared an end to “an era of major military operations to remake other countries.” It’s a familiar pledge, and one that the US never sticks to for very…

Arms deals between longtime allies don’t typically make global news, let alone lead the headlines on multiple continents. But the new Aukus (Australia-UK-US) pact isn’t a garden-variety arms deal. It weaves together several compelling global story lines, from the shifting alignments in maritime…

For years, China has purported to be a new type of great power: one that rises peacefully and respects the rights of other states rather than chasing the foreign domination of empires past. “China will never seek hegemony, expansion or a sphere of influence,” President Xi Jinping said in April. …

Lost wars are supposed to provoke soul-searching. In America, they usually bring historical revisionism instead. When once-good wars go bad, Americans tend to conclude that there was never anything redeeming about them in the first place. This impulse is already coloring the debate over…