Explore Foreign Affairs’ coverage of political, economic, and social issues in the United States, as well as Washington’s foreign relations, past and present.

When the People’s Republic of China was founded, in 1949, it was explicitly a multinational state. Although Han Chinese make up more than 90 percent of the country’s population, China’s constitution ...

Separated from China by a roughly 100-mile-wide strait, Taiwan relies on its navy as the first line of defense against a potential invasion. It must be able to prevent an assault by a Chinese force ...

In July, Bloomberg reported that for the first time in roughly two decades of Pew Research Center global polling, the world now views China more favorably than the United States. The sentiment was not ...

Six months in, the U.S. and Israeli war on Iran has settled into a stalemate. Neither Washington nor Tehran can achieve a clear military or diplomatic victory. Instead, the two sides have found ...

Europe itself, he said, needed to “take ownership of conventional security on the continent.” Last month, to turn this vision into reality, the Pentagon launched its Europe Posture Review, which is ...

In early April, a convoy of 299 Iraqi fuel tankers crossed into Syria on its way to the Mediterranean port of Baniyas, one of the few remaining paths to international markets amid the closure of the ...

As he prepares to face Israeli voters next month after three years of incessant war, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has formulated a new strategy. Ignoring the huge costs in blood and ...

The United States, Russia, and China may not yet be in an arms race, but they are gearing up for one. Washington is building a new intercontinental ballistic missile, strategic bomber, and ballistic ...

Among its many advantages, the United States benefits from a rare form of geographic luck: it is bracketed on the east and west by two vast moats in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and only two ...