Shrapnel damage to an exterior of a home in Rehovot near Tel Aviv, Israel.
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The Problem With America's Reagan-Era Approach to Terrorism

While condemning terrorism should be a no-brainer, "moral clarity" has not guaranteed sound U.S. counterterrorism policy.
Member of Hamas holding a flag and an automatic rifle.

How George W. Bush Helped Hamas Come to Power

In Bush’s naïveté about the magic of elections, he ignored a crucial point about democracy.
Congo Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba, hands bound, sits in the bed of an army truck under guard of Congolese soldiers on Dec. 2, 1960, one day after his arrest by troops loyal to Col. Joseph Mobutu.

Open the Congo Files and Face Up to What the CIA Did

When Congo gained independence during the Cold War, secret U.S. actions undermined its young democracy. It’s time to make up for that.
Walt Rostow testifying in the U.S. Senate in Washington, D.C., February 1962.

The Real Washington Consensus

Modernization theory and the delusions of American strategy.
A photograph of Patrice Lamumba, superimposed on an outline of Africa and the CIA's seal.

When America Helped Assassinate an African Leader

The murder of independent Congo’s first prime minister, the subject of a new book, had lasting psychological effects on the whole continent.
Senator Joe Biden

In the ’80s, Joe Biden Speculated to Israel’s PM About Wiping Out Canadians

He expressed support for Israel's bloody invasion of Lebanon, saying the US would be similarly justified retaliating against Canadian cities for militant attacks.
Collage of Samuel Huntington, his essay "The Clash of Civilizations," and 21st-century political figure.

Samuel Huntington’s Great Idea Was Totally Wrong

His “Clash of Civilizations” essay in Foreign Affairs turned 30 this year. It was provocative, influential, manna for the modern right—and completely and utterly not true.

America Is a Root Cause of Israel and Palestine’s Latest War

How 30 years of U.S. policy ended in disaster.
Street art graffiti on the Israeli separation West Bank wall in Bethlehem features a portrait of George Floyd, symbolizing the links between Black American and Palestinian activists.

The Long, Complicated History of Black Solidarity With Palestinians and Jews

How Black support for Zionism morphed into support for Palestine.
Birthright Israel group visits the Western Wall

Hooked on a Feeling: Birthright Israel's Affective Politics

You can't be neutral on a tour bus rolling toward the foot of Masada.
John Brown.

A Plea for Genuine Peace in Liberation

To address these atrocities and treat Jewish victims, survivors, and families with dignity, we must confront Israel’s subjugation of Palestine.
Black and white picture of 7 scientists around a table. In the back, a poster of the Saturn Rocket is visible.
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The Forgotten History of Nazi Immigration to the U.S.

Canada's politicians accidentally honored a Nazi immigrant. The U.S. has frequently done the same.
Israeli artillerymen plug their ears while laying down a barrage on Syrian positions.

The Arab-Israeli War 50 Years Ago Brought Us Close to Nuclear Armageddon

As world leaders scramble to prevent the Israel-Hamas war from escalating, it is often forgotten just how close the Yom Kippur War came to all-out nuclear war.

Have We Learned Nothing?

The comparison between last weekend's Hamas attack and 9/11 is apt.
Olivier Bancoult, center, the leader of the Chagos Refugee Group, stands on Capitol Hill with Roger Alexis, a Chagossian, left, and Philip Ah-Chuen, a Mauritian advisor to the group. They met last week with lawmakers to demand reparations and an apology for the forced removal of thousands of native inhabitants from the Chagos Islands in the 1960s and 1970s to make room for a U.S. military base.

They Were Deported to Build a U.S. Naval Base. Now They Want Reparations.

50 years after native inhabitants of the Chagos Islands were forced out to make room for a military base, a Chagossian leader came to D.C. seeking reparations.
Naval battle in paiting “Battle of Tripoli."

Counterinsurgency to the Shores of Tripoli

The Navy’s operations against Barbary corsairs at the start of the 19th century provide salient lessons for operating in the gray zone today.
Iranian demonstrator dressed as Uncle Sam.
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The Secret C.I.A. Operation That Haunts U.S.-Iran Relations

A 1953 C.I.A.-backed coup that ousted Iran’s Cold War leader has colored U.S.-Iran relations for decades.
Chilean President Gabriel Boric at the forty-seventh anniversary of the assassination of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Karpen Moffitt.

The Pinochet-Era Debt that the United States Still Hasn’t Settled

Chile’s president was in Washington over the weekend to mark a grim anniversary. Congress is still asking questions about the U.S. role in the 1973 coup.
Political cartoon of a column with the United States, Chile, and China; United Kingdom falling.

The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers Redux

The author of the 20th century’s most influential history book anticipates the coming world order.
Richard Nixon, 1968.

Richard Nixon’s Last Crusade

America’s 37th president tried to save America’s Russia policy in the 1990s.
Smoke pours from La Moneda, the Chilean presidential palace, during the military coup.

50 Years After “the Other 9/11”: Remembering the Chilean Coup

Some personal reflections on history, memory, and the survival of democracies.
Friedrich Hayek listens to the president of the Centro de Estudios Públicos in Chile, Jorge Cauas, speak in April 1981.

Neoliberal Economists Like Milton Friedman Cheered on Augusto Pinochet’s Dictatorship

Friedrich von Hayek and Milton Friedman helped devise Pinochet's economic agenda and endorsed the brutal repression that was needed to force it through.
Austin West, a Choctaw student, visits Kindred Spirits, a monument to the Choctaw in County Cork.

The Unlikely, Enduring Friendship Between Ireland and the Choctaw Nation

One act of generosity during the Great Famine forged a bond that transcends generations.
Helen Mirren as Golda Meir.

The Strange Feminism of “Golda”

The biopic starring Helen Mirren shies away from the moral implications of Golda Meir’s decisions.
Museum display of Nixon and Kissinger on the phone, a telephone, and the transcript of their call.

Chile: The Secrets the US Government Continues to Hide

Fifty years after the military coup that brought down Salvador Allende and installed Pinochet as dicator, top secret US documents still need to be declassified.
Sea Captains drinking alcohol

Ships Going Out

In "American Slavers," Sean M. Kelley surveys the relatively unknown history of Americans who traded in slaves in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Moe Berg in his baseball uniform holding a catchers glove

The Baseball Player-Turned-Spy Who Went Undercover to Assassinate the Nazis' Top Nuclear Scientist

During World War II, the OSS sent Moe Berg to Europe, where he gathered intel on Germany's efforts to build an atomic bomb.
A miner carries a sack of ore at the Shabara mine near Kolwezi.

First They Mined for the Atomic Bomb. Now They’re Mining for E.V.s.

Miners in the Democratic Republic of Congo face few protections in the global rush for metals in energy transition—a toxic legacy from mining nuclear weapons.
Salvador Allende campaigning before Chile’s parliamentary elections, Santiago, February 1973.

Defending Allende

On September 4, 1973, an enormous multitude of Chileans poured into the streets of Santiago to back the besieged government of Salvador Allende.
A worker in the Shinkolobwe mine.

The Dark History ‘Oppenheimer’ Didn't Show

Coming from the Congo, I knew where an essential ingredient for atomic bombs was mined, even if everyone else seemed to ignore it.