Marking the 500th anniversary of the The Prince (1513), Stewart Patrick explains why Machiavelli's primer on statecraft still has the capacity to shock half a millennium after it was written.

Benn Steil takes a critical look at the longstanding efforts of former IMF historian James Boughton to disparage the evidence that the Fund's founding architect, FDR Treasury official Harry Dexter White, engaged in espionage on behalf of the Soviet Union.

If Operation Overlord failed, the entire Allied enterprise in World War II faced abject collapse. This new history of the events leading up to D-Day explains why, and what the preparations for success actually involved.

War makes for strange bedfellows, and among the oddest pairings that World War II produced was that between "Wild Bill" Donovan's Office of Strategic Services and the emigre German Jewish Marxists he hired to teach Washington about the Nazis.

The United States' current respite from geopolitical rivalry ought not to be wasted, writes Richard N. Haass.

Ray Takeyh debunks the myth that the CIA was responsible for Mossadeq's demise and the 1953 Iranian coup.

The foreign policy of China's newly-installed president, Xi Jinping, is in its infancy, but one variable that has already generated much discussion is the role that Chinese first lady Peng Liyuan might play in shaping China's image abroad.

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Benn Steil's article in the June 2013 edition of History Today takes a critical look at John Maynard Keynes's performance as a diplomat during World War II, concluding that Britain had made a mistake sending him to Washington. His temperament and overinvestment in his personal legacy resulted in Britain paying a high political and economic price for American financial assistance.

There is a well-known adage that politics stops at the water's edge, but this tends to be more hope than reality. American history is filled with examples in which political disagreement at home has made it difficult for the United States to act, much less lead, abroad.

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The League of Nations was championed by President Woodrow Wilson in a fourteen-point speech to a joint session of Congress on January 8, 1918, and formally began its operations in January 1920. However, the League failed to win Senate approval and is forever remembered as a major example of a communications breakdown between the president and the Senate.

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CFR President Richard N. Haass calls on Americans to "resolve our political dysfunction, rethink our foreign policy and restore the foundations of American power—and in the process provide another century of American leadership."

Ray Takeyh examines examples of foreign policy failures turned success, including "the shift in U.S. containment policy during the early stages of the Truman presidency; the changed U.S. approach to the Vietnam War after Richard Nixon's 1968 election; and George W. Bush's surge in Iraq."

George J. Mitchell discusses his career in government, as part of the HBO History Makers Series.

George J. Mitchell discusses his career in government, as part of the HBO History Makers Series.

The Venezuelan revolutionary Simon Bolívar has a remarkably elastic legacy. Ever since his death in 1830, Latin American politicians across the political spectrum have claimed to be his rightful heir. What Bolívar left behind, it turns out, was less a coherent set of ideas than an abstract vision of Latin American unity -- a vision that remains impossible today.

George J. Mitchell discusses his career in government, as part of the HBO History Makers Series.

Assistant Secretary Shapiro discusses the integration of diplomacy and defense in meeting national security challenges.

Charles Kupchan reflects on former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher's legacy in Europe.

Elliott Abrams provides his insight as former secretary of state for Latin America and reviews the Chilean film, "NO," which is set during the Pinochet presidency.

Elliott Abrams analyzes President Obama's news conference in Ramallah.