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June 22, 2023

Afghanistan
Our Biggest Errors in Afghanistan and What We Should Learn from Them

As a journalist, book author, and sometime adviser with frequent visits to Afghanistan between 2002 and 2015, I offer this distillation of lessons that we might learn from the United States’ longest …

An Afghan working in a U.S military base walks near half mast flags of United States, Afghanistan and Task Force Cacti after a U.S. Army officer was killed by an IED (improvised explosive device) during a patrol in Pesh Valley, at Forward Operating Base Joyce in Kunar province, eastern Afghanistan March 18, 2012.

June 22, 2023

Ukraine
A Tale of Two Invasions

The different responses to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Iraq's of Kuwait three decades ago reveal growing international fragmentation and disorder.

U.S. soldiers arrive at a burning oil refinery in Al-Khafji, Saudi Arabia, during the Gulf War.

August 23, 2021

Middle East and North Africa
Iraq Is the Middle East’s New Power Broker

After decades of offering only chaos, Baghdad is trying to become a leading force in the region. 

U.S. President Joe Biden Speaks with Iraq's Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi during a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, U.S., July 26, 2021.

January 8, 2021

Middle East and North Africa
America’s Vaccine Diplomacy Is AWOL in the Middle East.

China and Russia are spreading their vaccines—and forging new ties—to some of Washington’s closest allies.

March 17, 2023

Iraq
Twenty Years After the War to Oust Saddam, Iraq Is a Shaky Democracy

On the two-decade anniversary of the U.S. invasion, Iraq is weakly governed, leaving it prone to instability and meddling by neighbors—especially Iran.

An Iraqi soldier watches gun-toting men from the Saraya al-Salam militia, who are stand on a truck bed