Lies, misconceptions, and propaganda about intensifying climate change and policy responses will increasingly shape security and geopolitics. In May, southern Brazil experienced devastating flooding that killed more than 160 people, displaced 600,000 residents, and drew in the military for a lengthy recovery. It was another harbinger of our age of climate insecurity. But despite likely scientific explanations, recovery was complicated by...
A review of Steve Coll, “The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the CIA and the Origins of America’s Invasion of Iraq” (Penguin Random House, 2024) Steve Coll’s latest work, “The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the CIA and the Origins of America’s Invasion of Iraq,” seeks to explain why Saddam Hussein would put his regime at risk...
Ever since the first Neanderthal bones were discovered in 1856, people have wondered about these ancient hominins. How are they different from us? How much are they like us? Did our ancestors get along with them? Fight them? Love them? The recent discovery of a group called Denisovans, a Neanderthal-like group who populated Asia and...
Why does Washington indulge its allies to a fault? Editor’s Note: Why don’t small, seemingly vulnerable allies listen to the United States when it makes demands on them? Jeremy Shapiro of the European Council on Foreign Relations tries to explain this puzzle, arguing that effective lobbying, the U.S. desire for leadership, and the U.S. focus on credibility all...
A review of Ian Johnson, “Sparks: China’s Underground Historians and Their Battle for Their Future” (Oxford University Press, 2023) “To destroy a country’s people, start with destroying their history,” Gong Zizhen (1792-1841), a famous Chinese poet and intellectual from the Qing dynasty, wrote over a hundred years before the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) rose to...
Ancient Maya genomes reveal the practice of male twin sacrifice and the enduring genetic legacy of colonial-era epidemics Rising to power in the wake of the Classic Maya collapse, Chichén Itzá was among the largest and most influential cities of the ancient Maya, but much about its political connections and ritual life remain poorly understood....
Giving a regular cash payment to the entire world population has the potential to increase global gross domestic product (GDP) by 130%, according to a new analysis published June 7 in the journal Cell Reports Sustainability. Researchers suggest that charging carbon emitters with an emission tax could help fund such basic income program while reducing environmental...
Horses crossed the Baltic Sea in ships during the Late Viking Age and were sacrificed for funeral rituals, according to research from Cardiff University. Published in the journal Science Advances, studies on the remains of horses found at ancient burial sites in Russia and Lithuania show that they were brought overseas from Scandinavia utilising expansive trade...
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Nearly three years into Taliban rule, the Afghan economy remains weak. What can the U.S. and other donors do about it? Editor’s note: The following article is based on remarks given by the author at the Afghan-American Chamber of Commerce’s private-sector conference in Istanbul on March 4, 2024. Nearly three years into Taliban rule of...
Since the 1980s, migration has been a part of the Nigerian middle-class psyche, catalysed by the usual suspects: high unemployment, security concerns, infrastructure gaps, and poor governance. Migrants tends to be middle-class since one needs resources to migrate. For many young Nigerians, the bloodshed that ended the 2020 #EndSARS protests against police brutality proved to...
