Analysis & Opinions

It was the Intelligence Communities job to provide information and the president’s job to use the information to further the nation’s interests and to protect the capabilities that created such advantage. The only duty to national security that Trump retained upon leaving office was the lifelong responsibility not to disclose the information. He’s now being held accountable for his alleged failure to do so, as our system demands.

Juliette Kayyem analyses the threat of violence from Trump's supporters: Worrying about whether the base is emboldened is not the correct metric; the thing to watch is whether the number of supporters who are inclined to violence is growing.

Joseph Nye explores what a second Donald Trump presidency may mean for U.S. foreign policy and the world? While the man himself is unpredictable, his first term and his behavior since losing re-election in 2020 offer plenty of clues, none of which would be comforting to America's allies.

Juliette Kayyem discusses how a Manhattan judge's advice to jurors accurately reflects what Donald Trump has done to democratic norms.

Stephen Walt asks that given that winning reelection will take precedence over just about everything else, how will the Biden administration handle foreign policy between now and Election Day? 

Anatol Klass recounts the severity of the U.S. government's campaign against some of its own leading experts on China in the 1950s and then argues that the recently formed China select committee must understand that a wide range of nuanced, well-informed views on the Chinese Communist Party will inform better policy, whether it be hawkish or engagement-oriented.

Fredrik Logevall describes the legacy of the Paris Peace Accords, which effectively put an end to U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, as the 50th anniversary of the accords nears.

Stephen Walt offers some brief foreign-policy advice for the newest members of the U.S. legislature.

The nonpartisan ethic of the armed forces is at greater risk today than it has been in our lifetimes, and maintaining it is essential for the survival of American democracy.

 Stephen Walt decided to look back to see if 2022 had gone according to his expectations. In his last column of 2021, he had described "Biden’s 2022 Foreign-Policy To-Do List." What did he get right, what did he get wrong, and how well did the Biden administration perform?