The Best of Web 2018

by Odd Arne Westad

Contemporary politics is full of false analogies, and the return of the Cold War seems to be one of them.

by Tanisha M. Fazal and Sarah Kreps

Public anger at home pulled the United States out of Vietnam, but the public’s indifference about the intervention in Afghanistan has allowed the United States' longest war to drag on.

by Adrian Zenz

It is possible to see how reeducation drive in Xinjiang could end up influencing China’s social credit system: those who end up falling below a certain score could be required to undergo reeducation treatments to greater or lesser degrees.

by Nicholas Wright

AI will create a new global competition between technological authoritarianism and liberal democracy.

by Nate Schenkkan

Turkey’s “global purge,” which mirrors the effort after the coup attempt to rid Turkey’s domestic institutions of anyone associated with Gulen, is remarkable in its speed, scale, and aggression.

by Loren DeJonge Schulman and Alice Friend

Trump’s commitment to secrecy, once a punchline among policy elites, has been widely embraced throughout the national security establishment. 

by Michael Beckley

China is not the hegemon-in-waiting that many consider it to be.

by Elizabeth N. Saunders

Donald Trump’s surprise victory in 2016 has offered quite the test: What does it mean for the United States to elect a leader with no experience in government, little knowledge of foreign policy, and an explicit disdain for expertise?

by Joseph S. Nye Jr.

Democratic governments should not overreact to sharp power in ways that undercut their true advantage, which comes from soft power.

by Benjamin Haddad and Alina Polyakova

With U.S. untethering a continuing trend, a Europe whole, free, and at peace means a Europe able to fend for itself on the world stage.