Kathy Gilsinan
She was previously an editor at World Politics Review.
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Rodi Said / Reuters There Is No Plan B for ISIS Prisoners
As Turkey stokes chaos in northern Syria, the U.S. has no new options to deal with the ISIS prisoners held there—or what to do if they escape.
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Handout via Reuters Why Is Turkey in NATO Anyway?
The alliance goes back more than 60 years—and it’s been decades of disappointments for both sides.
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Demiroren News Agency (DHA) / REUTERS The U.S. Moves Out, and Turkey Moves In
The biggest hitch to Turkey’s ambitions in northeastern Syria was the presence of U.S. forces. No more U.S. forces, no more hitch.
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Kevin Lamarque / Reuters Trump Is Killing a Fatally Flawed Syria Policy
Did the president betray the Kurds or help dismantle a contradictory strategy in Syria? Both.
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Gleb Garanich / Reuters The U.S. Gives Military Aid to Corrupt Countries All the Time
Military assistance deserves more scrutiny in many cases. Ukraine is nowhere near the most important.
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Ahmad Masood / Reuters ‘We Shouldn’t Be Buying the Taliban’s Excuse’
The Afghan national security adviser wants his government to take over after a failed year of U.S. negotiations. But now the country has an uncertain election to contend with.
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Eduardo Munoz / Reuters The UN Weathers Another Trump Scandal
Impeachment loomed over Trump’s visit to the United Nations—but the UN is used to this kind of thing.
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Yana Paskova / Reuters The U.S. and Iran Are Still Worlds Apart on a Deal
At the UN, America and Iran talk at each other and refuse to meet.
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Carlos Barria / Reuters DHS Is Finally Going After White Supremacists. It’s Not Going to Be Simple.
A new strategy for the first time places a major priority on domestic terrorism, especially of the extreme right. Now the agency has to actually tackle the problem.
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(Handout via Reuters) Everyone Is Getting Sucked Into the Iran Morass
The U.S. threatened Iran after an attack on a Saudi oil field sent global energy prices soaring, showing how the tensions affect literally everyone.
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Rahmat Gul / AP What Really Prompted Trump to Call Off Afghan Peace Talks
The latest bout of bloodshed may have played some role in the actions Trump just took, but it is also a convenient out for an administration that had gone all in on a floundering initiative.
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Khalil Ashawi / Reuters Should We Listen to Former Extremists?
Some who have renounced their past in neo-Nazi or jihadist movements now hope to save others from the same fate. But there are risks to this approach—not least to the “formers” themselves.
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Caren Firouz / Reuters Iran’s Enemy du Jour: A Guy Who Runs a Think Tank
The Islamic Republic has focused its ire on a D.C. research outfit that employs a few dozen people. How did the Foundation for Defense of Democracies get so famous in Tehran?
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Eman Mohammed The Americans Left Behind in Iran
The U.S. president prides himself on freeing American prisoners held abroad. So why isn’t he pushing harder for the ones in Iran?
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Indian Space Research Organisation Handout/Reuters Five Stories We’re Watching
Atlantic writers look ahead at India’s moon landing, WeWork’s giant IPO filing, Taylor Swift’s Lover, and more.
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Carlos Barria / Reuters The End of the Dan Coats Era
Whoever takes over from Coats permanently could serve as a needed voice of clarity about America’s biggest challenges—or see the intelligence community further sidelined.
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Courtesy of Christian Picciolini A Reformed White Nationalist Says the Worst Is Yet to Come
Christian Picciolini discusses the mainstreaming of white nationalism, what it takes to de-radicalize far-right extremists, and why the problem is metastasizing.
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Mohammad Ismail / Reuters The Promise Presidential Candidates Never Make Good On
Most Democrats want to end the war in Afghanistan, but the next president will have to weigh the trade-off between a responsibility to the American public and what the U.S. owes a country it invaded and promised to rebuild.
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Joshua Roberts / Reuters Dan Coats Spoke Truth to Trump. Now He’s Out.
The director of national intelligence won plaudits for plainly laying out the intelligence community’s assessments on issues ranging from Iran to Russia, putting him at odds with the president.
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Edgar Su / Reuters How the U.S. Could Lose a War With China
It’s not that the Chinese Communist Party would take over Washington. But in its own region, China has the advantage.
