The Asian continent is home to all ten capital cities with the smoggiest skies, according to a recent report. This visual story explores the environmental and human factors that contribute to the problem.
B. Rentsendorj/Reuters
Indonesia
Chaideer Mahyuddin/AFP/Getty Images
Indonesia’s presidential election next month will likely result in more political stagnation for the world’s third-largest democracy.
Brexit
UK Prime Minister Theresa May has been unable to convince her own party to pass the Brexit deal she negotiated with the European Union because of its backstop provision. What is it, and why does it matter?
The Good Friday Agreement has dampened sectarian tensions and brought stability to Northern Ireland since 1998, but Brexit negotiations and local political paralysis are throwing the region’s hard-won gains into doubt.
Nigeria
February’s presidential election does not inspire confidence in the democratic trajectory of Africa’s most populous country.
Through mass kidnappings, bombings, and other acts of terrorism, the Islamist insurgent group remains an enduring threat to northern Nigeria and the Lake Chad Basin.
The Council on Foreign Relations's Nigeria Security Tracker is an effort to catalog and map political violence based on a weekly survey of Nigerian and international press. The data presented includes violent incidents related to political, economic, and social grievances directed at the state or other affiliative groups (or conversely the state employing violence to respond to those incidents.)
North Korea
It is time to put denuclearization on the back burner and adopt realistic approaches toward North Korea. An all-or-nothing approach will yield nothing, leaving the United States worse off than before the diplomatic outreach began.
Nuclear negotiations involving the United States and North Korea, which have proceeded in fits and starts over more than a quarter century, have been stymied by mistrust.
Syria
If the president wants to withdraw from Syria, he might as well just withdraw.
CFR on the Record
James Gorman discusses his approach to setting a global strategy for Morgan Stanley and the importance of effective leadership and clear communication when running a large multinational company.
Panelists discuss Russia’s foreign policy under President Vladimir Putin and its increased involvement with countries around the world, including those in neighboring Eastern Europe and Eurasia, as well as in Western Europe, the United States, and the Middle East.
Although the global rate of extreme poverty is at a historic low, the pace of poverty reduction is slowing and the World Bank estimates that more than 700 million people still live on less than $1.90 a day.
The 2019 Robert B. Menschel Economics Symposium discusses the ways behavioral economics can inform development policy to create effective solutions to poverty at the international, national, and local levels.
Expert Spotlight
Explainers
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Refugees and Displaced Persons
No Refuge
Why the world’s swelling refugee population has shrinking options.
Women and Economic Growth
Growing Economies Through Gender Parity
Closing the gender gap in the workforce could add a staggering $28 trillion to the global GDP.
Wars and Conflict
Global Conflict Tracker
The Center for Preventive Action’s Global Conflict Tracker is an interactive guide to ongoing conflicts around the world of concern to the United States.
North Korea
North Korean Nuclear Negotiations: A Brief History
Nuclear negotiations involving the United States and North Korea, which have proceeded in fits and starts over more than a quarter century, have been stymied by mistrust.
China
China’s Massive Belt and Road Initiative
China’s Belt and Road Initiative is the most ambitious infrastructure investment effort in history. But is it also a plan to remake the global balance of power?
Featured Publications
A sweeping narrative account of the last five years in the Middle East and a timely argument of how and why the Arab uprisings failed.
The award-winning author of The Battle of Bretton Woods reveals the gripping history behind the Marshall Plan—told with verve, insight, and resonance for today.
A personal story of the development of U.S. human rights policy in the last forty years and an argument, both "realist" and principled, for supporting the expansion of democracy in the Middle East.