Foreign Affairs

Since its founding in 1922, Foreign Affairs has been the leading forum for serious discussion of American foreign policy and global affairs. Foreign Affairs is published by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), a non-profit and nonpartisan membership organization dedicated to improving the understanding of U.S. foreign policy and international affairs through the free exchange of ideas.

Foreign Affairs's recent articles

Chronicle of a Defeat Foretold Why America Failed in Afghanistan

In 2008, I interviewed the United Kingdom’s then outgoing military commander in Afghanistan, Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, in a dusty firebase in Helmand Province, where international troops had been battling the Taliban on a daily basis for territory that kept slipping away.

The End of Modi’s Global Dreams...and the Quad!

India’s prime minister advanced a muscular foreign policy, but his mishandling of the pandemic is an embarrassing step back. If India stumbles, the American dream of the Quad can never become a reality.

Japan’s looming climate showdown

That makes Suga’s new stance a significant reversal for Japan.

Vaccine Diplomacy Is Paying Off for China

Beijing Hasn’t Won the Soft-Power Stakes, but It Has an Early Lead.

An unsentimental China policy: The case for putting vital interests first

Fifty years ago come July, US President Richard Nixon announced what would become his signature foreign policy achievement: the opening to China. The following February, in what the press called “the week that shook the world”, he flew to Beijing to meet Mao Zedong, the leader of communist China. So began a half-century of US engagement with Beijing.

A Revolutionary Change in Thailand: Protests Against the Monarchy Signal a Break With the Past (Foreign Affairs Dec 7, 2020)

Since February, protesters have taken to the streets of Thailand to demand reform of the country’s political system. Demonstrations swelled in recent months as activists grew more forthright in criticizing the government and the monarchy—an institution traditionally held sacrosanct.

Phantom Peril in the Arctic (Foreign Affairs Sep 29, 2020)

Russia Doesn’t Threaten the United States in the Far North—But Climate Change Does.