First Person
Letters From the Edge of Empire
A trove of family documents reveals how Dutch-Indonesian families were caught between two worlds as an empire collapsed. A newly independent Indonesia struggled with the boundaries of national identity and, in the Netherlands, new categories were created to pronounce on the “Westernness” of arrivals.
Studying Under Fire
The destruction of Gaza’s universities has erased not just buildings, but entire futures. For students, it has turned years of study into uncertainty, forcing us to rebuild our hopes from the ground up.
Covering Gaza
As Palestinians in Gaza are starved, bombed and burned, fleeing between areas, attempting to avoid snipers, scavenging from dirt to feed their children and themselves, even those who want to write cannot find the time or the strength. But what they say about their lives deserves recording.
The Spirit of Tehran
Israel’s unrelenting bombings have shaken Tehran, upended its balance and killed hundreds of civilians. Yet the city continues to pulse with energy and its people have shown a spirit of care, resilience and quiet determination to carry on.
On the Front Lines of the M23 Rebellion
Amid the M23 insurgency in eastern Congo, New Lines went into rebel-controlled territory to see the effects of the fighting and heard from militants, displaced families and local leaders about the harsh realities of life in a war zone, the changing political situation and the influence of foreign countries.
Teaching Gandhi in a Texas Detention Center
Badar Khan Suri, a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University, was arrested by masked federal agents and is now in an ICE detention facility in Texas, where he provides short tutorials on Gandhi for his fellow prisoners. A Georgetown colleague reflects on a recent visit with him.
The Fragile Foundations of Arab-Kurdish Coexistence
A journey from Damascus into eastern Syria — along a busy smuggling route — shows that the desire for a united country remains strong, despite the efforts of factions and external actors to sow discord and fuel sectarian fears.