In Karla’s Choice, Nick Harkaway takes up his father John le Carré’s most enduring creation, returning George Smiley back to the Cold War’s morally gray trenches. The novel reminds us that clever tradecraft can’t fix what cowardly leaders break.
Caught off guard by new proposals to halt the war in Ukraine, European leaders have rejected the idea of Kyiv giving up territory. What’s less clear is how they imagine making their red lines into a reality.
Erdoğan’s would-be dictatorship is anything but stable. Here's a look at the contradictions and fractures roiling Turkish society.
The US, not Russia, pioneered the use of state-sponsored social media manipulation.
Anthony Bourdain’s genius was not in the kitchen. His genius was in knowing which side he was on.
The revolution in Rojava — founded on principles of anticapitalism, Kurdish self-determination, and women's liberation — is at risk of being wiped out. And the Trump administration may just turn its back.
Rojava, the site of a remarkable peoples’ revolution, is on the brink of colonization and extermination. The international left must stand against it.
The mass slaughter of leftists in Indonesia was more than just another Washington-backed atrocity. It was the prototype for smashing the hopes and dreams of the Left in the developing world — for good.
Lebanon has been subject to an unending series of disasters, of which last week’s ammonium nitrate explosion is only the most recent. But neither its own corrupt elites or European neoliberals like Emmanuel Macron can be trusted to actually end them.
Last fall, Armenia was devastated by a six-week war with its neighbor Azerbaijan, ending in the deployment of Russian peacekeepers across the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh. Yet the "peace agreement" has done nothing to resolve the deeper reasons for the conflict, in the ethno-nationalist strife which has simmered since the fall of the USSR.
While the Biden administration continues arms sales to Saudi Arabia, the death toll is only mounting in Yemen. Aid workers on the ground tell us the situation is worse than ever.
The US invasion of Iraq was a crime, a calculated act of aggression that left immense destruction in its wake with almost no redeeming benefits to anyone — including its villainous architects.
The Iraqi Kurds were supposed to be liberated by Saddam’s removal. Instead, they face corrupt regional parties and a hostile central state.
Israel’s war in Gaza has been portrayed as a gift for Moscow, helping it rally the Global South against the West. But Kremlin policy in the region has long relied on a tacit deal with Israel — and its unraveling is causing splits within Russia’s elite.
Cloaked in an impenetrable jargon, “decoloniality” dehistoricizes and culturalizes colonialism. It’s a political and intellectual dead end for socialists.
French historian Maxime Rodinson transformed our understanding of the Muslim world with books like Muhammad and Islam and Capitalism. We revisit his pathbreaking work.
Prior to October 7, religious Zionist and other far-right factions had gained influence over Israel’s military, judiciary, and parliament. They have used the war to tighten their grip on power, suppressing the few challengers to the ongoing violence.
The world feared what Donald Trump would do to Muslims upon winning the presidency in 2016. But in the year since October 7, a genocide of a mostly Muslim population has been overseen and made possible by his liberal opponent, Joe Biden.
Joe Biden talked about wanting a cease-fire, but he continued sending weapons to Israel and refused to apply any pressure to end the attack on Gaza. That refusal, cosigned by Kamala Harris, is an integral part of both their legacies.
The overthrow of Bashar al-Assad was met with widespread celebrations in Syria. But the situation is full of unknowns for the Kurdish population, with Turkish-backed militias massively expanding their presence in the country.