Filter by:

Filter by published date

Viewing 31–60 of 124 results. Go to first page
U.S. soldiers providing sniper coverage for a meeting in Kandahar, January 2013

The High Cost of American Heavy-Handedness 

Great-power competition demands persuasion, not coercion.
A woman is surrounded by her children as she sits amid a pile of debris in the processing area towards Abbey Gate, as they wait to leave Afghanistan, Wednesday, August 25, 2021.

What We Miss When We Say a War Has “Ended”

Bringing to light the kinship among American wars—and, by extension, their true significance—requires situating them in a single historical framework.
Black and white photo of U.S. soldiers outside Manila during the Philippine-American War.

The Resounding Darkness of America’s Black Sites

It is in the hidden spaces of American empire that the realities of power can truly be seen.
A police officer standing over a victim of the Sharpeville Massacre, South Africa, March 21, 1960

The Etymology of Terror

For more than 150 years after it was coined, “terrorism” meant violence inflicted by the state on its people. How did the word come to mean the reverse?
A mostly African American audience listens to a speaker at the 5th Pan-African Conference, 1945

The New Black Internationalism

The Movement for Black Lives has developed an incipient internationalist language and vision, with the potential to remap America’s place in the world.
Fort Huachuca in 1894.

The American Maginot Line (Pt. 2)

Exploring the history of U.S. empire through the story of Fort Huachuca – the “Guardian of the Frontier.”
A drone flying low

Slouching Toward Humanity

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.
A family photo shows Balqes Jassem with her late husband, Abdul Ameer Alwan, and their daughter, Aman Alwan, at home in Richardson, Tex. The older Alwan was an Iraqi painter who passed away in 2015. The family came to the United States as Iraqi refugees in 2007.

New Americans

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.

The Case Against Humane War

How the turn toward “precision” combat promoted endless war.
US soldiers stand guard behind barbed wire as Afghans sit on a roadside near the military part of the airport in Kabul on August 20, 2021.

The US Lost in Afghanistan. But US Imperialism Isn’t Going Anywhere.

The US suffered grave losses in Iraq and Afghanistan, but we shouldn’t mistake revisions of US military strategy for a turn away from imperialist ambitions.

9/11 was a Test. The Books of the Last Two Decades Show How America Failed.

The books of the last two decades show how overreacting to the attacks unmade America’s values.
Plane with an eye in it and a bird's silhouette around.

Did Making the Rules of War Better Make the World Worse?

Why efforts to curb the cruelty of military force may have backfired.
Barbed wire with an American flag hanging on it

For Two Decades, Americans Told One Lie After Another About What They Were Doing in Afghanistan

The war in Afghanistan was nasty and brutish, marked by the same imperial arrogance that doomed U.S. involvement in Vietnam.
partner

As Afghanistan Collapses, a Lament for ‘Repeating the Same Mistakes’

Officials who drove the decades-long war in Afghanistan look back on the strategic errors and misjudgments that led to a 20-year quagmire.
A bullet whose path makes an audio file.

What I Learned While Eavesdropping on the Taliban

I spent 600 hours listening in on the people who now run Afghanistan. It wasn’t until the end of my tour that I understood what they were telling me.
Picture of David Rumsfield

How Rumsfeld Deserves to Be Remembered

America’s worst secretary of defense never expressed a quiver of regret.
A flag bearing the likeness of the former World Trade Center destroyed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks is flown at half-staff during a ceremony to place a time capsule and plaque outside the Oculus transit station to commemorate the centennial anniversary of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey on April 30 in New York.
partner

Twenty Years After 9/11, its Memorialization Remains Contested

Should 9/11 remembrances include the global war on terror?
Profiles of four people in background with a hand holding a military gun in the foreground

This Soldier’s Witness to the Iraq War Lie

A U.S. intelligence officer reflects on the moral corruption of an open-ended occupation.
Illustration of 9/11 inside outline of girl

The Children of 9/11 Are About to Vote

What the youngest cohort of American voters thinks about politics, fear and the potential of the country they’ve grown up in.

The Weight of History

A former Navy lawyer speaks about his decision to leak classified information on detainees at the infamous prison of Guantanamo.

We Used to Run This Country

Iran and surplus imperialism.
partner

Can Historical Analysis Help Reduce Military Deaths by Suicide?

A longer look reveals interesting patterns and may clarify what is driving a rise in suicides.

The Decade America Terrorized Itself

The next 9/11 never came. Instead, we got Sandy Hook, and Las Vegas, and Parkland…
Soldiers carrying a wounded soldier to a helicopter for evacuation.

Confidential Documents Reveal U.S. Officials Failed to Tell the Truth About the War in Afghanistan

For nearly two decades, US leaders have sounded a constant refrain: We're making progress in Afghanistan. They weren't, documents show, and they knew it.

Back to the Long War: Helmand Province Eight Years Later

Hundreds of Marines lost their lives in Helmand. Former Marine Christopher Jones returns to see what those losses achieved.

‘Orientalism,’ Then and Now

Edward Said's Orientalism is still with us forty years after his influential book’s publication, but it is not the same as it was.

How a Movement That Never Killed Anyone Became the FBI’s No. 1 Domestic Terrorism Threat

Behind the scenes, corporate lobbying laid the groundwork for the Justice Department’s aggressive pursuit of so-called eco-terrorists.
Walter Jones

Prosecuting Torture

Walter Jones and the unintended consequences of the War Crimes Act of 1996.
Henry Kissinger with North Vietnamese negotiators Le Duc Tho (left) and Xuan Thuyin in 1973.

How the U.S. Departure From Afghanistan Could Echo Kissinger's Moves in Vietnam

The way America is ending its War in Afghanistan is comparable to how it pulled out of the conflict in Vietnam.

My Fellow Prisoners

The grand lesson of John McCain's life should be that heroic politics is a broken politics.

Filter Results:

Suggested Filters:

Idea

Person