Beyond

A 1763 massacre by colonial settlers exposed the the irreconcilable contradictions of conquest by people concerned with civility.

Unable to bear the shame of being captured as a prisoner of war, Shoichi Yokoi hid in the jungles of Guam until January 1972.

What turned Smedley Butler into a critic of American foreign policy?

Somewhere in Jamaica survive the original cannabis strains that were not burned by American agents or bred to be more profitable.

How the CIA tried to trick the Soviets with sex dolls (but ultimately got screwed).

It is in the hidden spaces of American empire that the realities of power can truly be seen.

How the authors of the Depression-era “Business Plot” aimed to take power away from FDR and stop his “socialist” New Deal.

Extending that compassion today could reverse past wrongs.

The American exchange organizers were unaware that the German pupils and staff were charged with an explicitly propagandistic mission.

Toward the end of his life, Frederick Douglass served briefly as U.S. ambassador to Haiti.

How a sitting, elected national government found itself in the position of having to buy its own country.

There are important differences between Xi Jinping’s China and the Soviet Union, but the Cold War still offers clear strategic guidance for the U.S.

A counter-narrative to Samuel Moyn’s "Humane": drone warfare and the long history of liberal empire blurring the line between policing and endless war.

The 2015 Paris Agreement represented a shift in the climate regime towards "new governance," expanding the roles of nation-states and non-state actors alike.

Learning the right lessons of the past.

After Japan's surrender, U.S. troops rebelled against a plan to keep them overseas, staging dramatic protests from the Philippines to Guam.

Contractors are increasingly doing dangerous work helping our troops — without any of the recognition.

A conversation with two journalists who were among the first to uncover evidence of a deadly rampage.

With Susan Ronald’s meticulous, relentless biography, Joseph P. Kennedy is now firmly established in the annals of twentieth-century fascism.

The Pentagon is increasing its forces on the US territory, but Indigenous residents are fighting back.

The majority-female platoon from North Vietnam that fought against U.S. forces in the Vietnam War.

The CIA committed many crimes in the early days of post-independence Africa. But is it fair to call their interference “recolonization”?

The Haitian migrant crisis is the latest stage in a decades-long legacy of mistreatment by the U.S. government, much of which unfolded at Cuban detention facilities.

The Movement for Black Lives has developed an incipient internationalist language and vision, with the potential to remap America’s place in the world.

Relying on private contractors has always created problems for the U.S. military.

Did the United States have no other option but to drop atomic bombs on Japan in order to get them to surrender?

Historian Samuel Moyn contends that efforts to conduct war humanely have only perpetuated it. But the solution must lie in politics, not a sacrifice of human rights.

For more than a century, U.S. wars of invasion have claimed a humanitarian mantle.

Hundreds of thousands of Afghans and Iraqis displaced by war have settled in the U.S., their journeys spurred by tragedy and loss in the wake of 9/11.

Yale's John Fabian Witt pens a review of Samuel Moyn's new book, Humane.