Spotlight
Life Under the Ceasefire
As a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Gaza takes hold, a Palestinian journalist and father reflects from exile in Cairo on survival amid unimaginable loss and the uncertainty around returning home.
Assad’s Captagon Wager
The Assad regime’s manipulation of the Captagon trade, combining industrial-scale production with carefully crafted counternarcotics rhetoric, staged seizures and inflated statistics, gave the illusion of a crackdown. But the regime’s reliance on Captagon to reinforce its hold on power prompted a backlash from neighboring states and hastened its collapse.
It Takes Defiance To Tango
Tango, Argentina's iconic dance, is being reimagined by a new generation of dancers who are breaking away from traditional gender roles. The International Queer Tango Festival in Buenos Aires celebrates this evolution, showcasing a more inclusive and expressive way to embrace the dance.
The University That Shaped Russia’s Intervention in Syria
For decades, an elite university in St. Petersburg sustained Russia’s expertise on the Middle East and its influence abroad. Yet cracks in Russia’s supposed mastery of the region started to show around the turn of the millennium.
How Irish Americans Defied a Ban on Financing Weapons During the Troubles
During the 1970s and 1980s, when Northern Ireland was wracked by sectarian violence known as the Troubles, Irish Americans raised millions of dollars purportedly for the families of imprisoned IRA men. But evidence shows they were also circumventing the ban imposed by the U.S. government by funding weapons purchases.
In Sri Lanka, the Army Is Engaging in a New War on Drugs
Extrajudicial executions, police raids on low-income neighborhoods, media demonization of addicts and court-mandated rehabilitation at army-run centers have raised concerns about the criminalization of substance abuse in Sri Lanka.
Iraq Offers Lessons and Warnings for a New Syria
The sudden collapse of the Assad regime marks a momentous opportunity for Syrians to build an inclusive, stable democracy — but it also poses immense challenges, from rebuilding a war-torn society to preventing the rise of a new autocrat. Postwar Iraq offers lessons and cautionary tales for the nascent state.