World News Insights: Opinion Articles

In last week’s newsletter, I had a conversation with the philosopher Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò about the nature of dissent in an era when almost every message, however revolutionary in origin, gets processed and then ultimately defanged through the practice of “elite capture.” We touched on the question…

During a hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee a few days ago, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said that “China is working hard to effectively put themselves into a position in which their military is capable of taking Taiwan over our intervention” and that pressure on…

A diplomat asked me if I saw similarities between the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. I was surprised and answered that both events took place in a different world and a different region. Russia is not Iraq. Vladimir Putin is not the same as Saddam Hussein. The…

The notion of “Great Power Competition “was introduced by the Trump administration in its 2017 National Security Strategy NNS and subsequently confirmed by its 2018 National Defense Strategy NDS. China was considered the main threat to US interests. Influenced by the crisis in Ukraine, the new NNS…

When it comes to inflation, President Joe Biden gets two big things right — and a lot of little things wrong. Unfortunately, for both his administration and Americans adversely affected by higher prices, the little things add up. The administration’s message on inflation is broadly correct on…

The war in Ukraine has entered a new phase. It is no secret that the initial invasion went badly for Russia. Expecting easy victories, the Russian Army inflicted terrible destruction — especially in its shelling of cities — but for the most part failed to take territory outside the southeast of…

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has bid farewell to Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed, the head of state, who passed away, leaving behind a successful and stable Gulf state that is pioneering among its neighbors and enjoys an international standing. Moreover, the UAE’s political approach weighs heavily on…

Despite international attention being squarely focused on the war in Ukraine, more than 75 countries gathered in Brussels on May 10 and collectively pledged $6.7 billion to the Syria humanitarian aid effort. Such a sizeable sum far outmatched expectations and underlined the extent to which the…

Elon Musk took to Twitter early Friday to say that his takeover of the company was “temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users.” Musk might be serious about this. Or he might be joking and just using his vast…

Courage can seem like an outdated virtue in a world of selfish genes and utilitarian economics. If we are meant to put ourselves first — to maximize our individual utility — then what room is left for heroism? How can a self be selfless? It sounds almost illogical. It isn’t. Volodymyr Zelensky,…

Thanks to a remarkable oil and gas boom, the United States has achieved the long-sought goal of energy self-sufficiency: We now produce more oil and refined products, natural gas and coal than we consume. In particular, horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing — fracking — transformed the…

Last week brought a little clarity to the fog of the Ukraine war: The significant date of May 9, the celebration of the Soviet Union’s victory over Hitler’s Germany, came and went with no change of Russian strategy. When Vladimir Putin came out to inspect the military parades and…