EXCERPT

State of Disrepair

If the State Department really wants to lead U.S. foreign policy, it needs to stop complaining about the military and act more like it.

BY KORI SCHAKE | APRIL 11, 2012

The Lady and the Peacock

An exclusive excerpt from the new biography on Burma's democratic opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.

BY PETER POPHAM | MARCH 26, 2012

Shadid's Legacy

Anthony Shadid was one of the finest foreign correspondents of his -- or any -- generation. He passed away Feb. 16, 2012, while on assignment in Syria, but left behind a body of work that was often as poetic as it was insightful. Here are some of our favorite moments.

FEBRUARY 17, 2012

One Fine Day in Liberation Square

One year ago, Egyptians took to the streets in protests that shocked the world, and changed the course of the entire Middle East.

BY ASHRAF KHALIL | JANUARY 20, 2012

Why the Chinese Save

Contrary to conventional wisdom, China's high savings rate has everything to do with policy and institutions. Culture, not so much.

BY SHELDON GARON | JANUARY 19, 2012

A Secure, Undisclosed Location

In his latest book, "Warriors of God," Nicholas Blanford goes searching for one of Hezbollah's secret war bunkers, constructed mere feet from the Israeli border.

BY NICHOLAS BLANFORD | NOVEMBER 11, 2011

Remembering the Unquiet American

A fond retrospective on Richard Holbrooke, America’s most ambitious diplomat.

BY STROBE TALBOTT | NOVEMBER 1, 2011

The Shadow Superpower

Forget China: the $10 trillion global black market is the world's fastest growing economy -- and its future.

BY ROBERT NEUWIRTH | OCTOBER 28, 2011

Asia's New Great Game

China and India are both hungry for Burma's vast natural riches. But will Burma's people pay the price or can this Southeast Asian backwater finally enter the 21st century?

BY THANT MYINT-U | SEPTEMBER 12, 2011

The Annotated Toffler

The couple that predicted the world we live in today.

BY AYESHA & PARAG KHANNA | AUGUST 17, 2011

The Empire at Dusk

American pundits decry the onset of sharp defense cuts, but the Pentagon can’t even account for $1 trillion in its own spending. Isn't it time to rein in the beast?

BY STEPHEN GLAIN | AUGUST 16, 2011

Nuked

An FP special roundtable on Japan’s post-tsunami future.

JUNE 29, 2011

Liberté, Égalité, Virilité

The French don't just tolerate their politicians' sexual dalliances -- they demand them.

BY ELAINE SCIOLINO | JUNE 10, 2011

Between Mosque and Military

It's not just U.S. officials who are shining a harsh light on Pakistan's complicity with Islamist groups. Pakistan's ambassador to the United States once had some tough words of his own.

BY HUSAIN HAQQANI | MAY 17, 2011

Confessions of a Vulcan

An insider's story of how the Bush administration lost Afghanistan.

BY DOV S. ZAKHEIM | MAY 13, 2011

Eating My Way Through the Cedar Revolution

In this excerpt from a memoir of love and war, a former Beirut correspondent recalls the way her experience of Lebanon's most turbulent times was shaped by the meals she ate throughout.

BY ANNIA CIEZADLO | MARCH 15, 2011

Revolution in the Arab World

What to look for in FP's new exclusive ebook on the uprisings sweeping the Middle East.

FEBRUARY 18, 2011

The Shah's Atomic Dreams

More than three decades ago, before there was an Islamic Republic, the West sought desperately to prevent Iran's ruler from getting his hands on the bomb. New revelations show just how serious the crisis was -- and why America's denuclearization drive isn't working.

BY ABBAS MILANI | DECEMBER 29, 2010

Fault Lines

Global Thinker No. 26 Raghuram Rajan's look at the fissures that brought about the global financial crisis -- and which are still at work today.

BY RAGHURAM RAJAN | DECEMBER 2010

Looking Back on Too Big to Fail

From the new afterword to Andrew Ross Sorkin's classic tale of the financial crisis, recommended by several FP Global Thinkers: Have we learned anything from our failures?

BY ANDREW ROSS SORKIN | DECEMBER 2010

The Rational Optimist Goes Global

Recommended by our global thinkers, an excerpt from Matt Ridley's book on why everything is going to be OK -- even Africa and global warming.

BY MATT RIDLEY | DECEMBER 2010

Keystone Al-Kaeda

In the battle against Al Qaeda, the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

BY SCOTT ATRAN | NOVEMBER 5, 2010

Novel Ideas

Statesmen once looked to great works of literature to help them understand the world. No longer.

BY CHARLES HILL | AUGUST 13, 2010

The Fatwa

Ayatollah Khomeini and the legacy of the Salman Rushdie affair. 

BY KENAN MALIK | JULY 15, 2010

Big Brotherhood Is Watching

America's clumsy, misguided attempts to reach out to European Muslims.

BY IAN JOHNSON | MAY 26, 2010

Why Did the Pope Keep Quiet About Hitler?

Newly opened archives reveal what Pius XII knew and when he knew it.

BY HUBERT WOLF | MAY 6, 2010

Pen Portraits from a Forgotten Middle East

From a Zelig-like chronicler, encounters with the people who made history.

BY KAI BIRD | APRIL 27, 2010

The Elite Med Squad That Saved You from Anthrax

A look inside the hunt for a white, powdery killer.

BY MARK PENDERGRAST | APRIL 19, 2010

The Dirty Underside of Lula's Clean Energy Revolution

Brazil's biofueled paradise is looking more and more like a carbon-spewing wasteland.

BY NIKOLAS KOZLOFF | APRIL 9, 2010

Reading Saddam's Fortune

A long-time Middle East correspondent recalls his bizarre experience of the Iraq invasion in the house of a Yezidi prince -- and meeting a fortune-teller who only revealed to him that his future was not in journalism.

BY HUGH POPE | APRIL 5, 2010