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April 18, 2024

Palestinian Territories
What Is Hamas?

The Palestinian militant group struggled to govern the Gaza Strip before launching a surprise attack on Israel in 2023. Now facing Israel’s military campaign to destroy it, Hamas’s future is in doubt…

Gun-toting Hamas militants ride a vehicle amid a massive crowd of the group's supporters

April 17, 2024

Iran
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards

Conceived as the principal defenders of the 1979 revolution, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has evolved into an institution with vast political, economic, and military power.

Members of the Revolutionary Guards attend a parliamentary session in Tehran.

April 3, 2024

United States
What Does the U.S. National Guard Do?

The National Guard is a special part of the U.S. military that answers to both state governors and the president. While it began as a “strategic reserve,” the guard has come to play an important role…

A member of the National Guard patrols the southern U.S. border in Eagle Pass, Texas.

March 19, 2024

Palestinian Territories
Who Governs the Palestinians?

Power in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, the so-called Palestinian territories, has been divided among three entities: a governing body called the Palestinian Authority, the militant group Hamas, a…

Palestinians wave their national flag as they rally beneath images of President Mahmoud Abbas and his predecessor, Yasser Arafat

February 29, 2024

United Nations
Funding the United Nations: How Much Does the U.S. Pay?

Many UN agencies, programs, and missions receive crucial funding from the United States. The Trump administration sharply reduced funding to some UN agencies, but President Biden has largely reversed…

A child peeks out from a blue and white tent managed by the UN refugee agency.

February 26, 2024

United Nations
The UN Security Council

The UN Security Council is the premier global body for maintaining international peace and security, but it faces steady calls for reform to better meet twenty-first-century challenges.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addresses the Security Council via video amid Russia’s war.

February 8, 2024

United States
The U.S. Vice President and Foreign Policy

Modern vice presidents can trace much of their political influence to the broad reforms that Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale made to the second-highest elected office in the late 1970s.

Vice-President-Cheney-Rumsfeld-Libby--.jpg

February 7, 2024

United States
Seeking Protection: How the U.S. Asylum Process Works

Record numbers of migrants seeking to cross the southern U.S. border are challenging the Joe Biden administration’s attempts to restore asylum protections. Here’s how the asylum process works.

U.S. Border Patrol processes migrants seeking asylum in Yuma, Arizona.

January 25, 2024

Somalia
Somaliland: The Horn of Africa’s Breakaway State

The would-be independent state strikes a contrast with Somalia as a place of relative stability, and despite its lack of international recognition, Somaliland continues to push its own foreign policy…

A statue of a hand painted in the colors of Somaliland's flag holds a map of the territory.

December 22, 2023

Venezuela
Venezuela: The Rise and Fall of a Petrostate

Venezuela’s ongoing descent into economic and political chaos is a cautionary tale of the dangerous influence that resource wealth can have on developing countries.

People walk past an oil-themed mural in Caracas, Venezuela.