The battle for Kunduz highlights the military and political challenges facing Afghanistan and the narrowly defined U.S. mission there, says CFR’s Stephen Biddle.

Beyond China’s market upheaval is a country struggling with how to relax state control over the economy amid a slowdown that has global implications, writes CFR’s Robert Kahn.

The pope’s encyclical on the environment carries a profoundly religious message about care for the earth, wedded to a new call for activism, say religious scholars Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim.

The China-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank seeks to address a critical infrastructure gap in the region, but it is also a challenge to the existing global economic order, says CFR’s Robert…

China’s leaders have made a renewed call for rule of law reforms, but it is important to stress the ruling Communist Party remains above the law, says CFR’s Elizabeth C. Economy.