10 Conflicts to Watch in 2026 Major wars, simmering hostilities, and accelerating instability from Washington foreignpolicy.com/2025/12/31/1...

Last July, I wondered in this blog post whether the PKK's disarmament had really begun. I answered that no, the process had not started. A few months later, the situation has not changed much, with mistrust remaining high between the PKK and Ankara. clmentplaisant.substack.com/p/is-this-re...

True must-read essay on bringing the Cold War back into Turkish history. I'm probably going to keep reposting this at random throughout the year www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

A look back at 5 of @foreignpolicy.com's best pieces on Trump, America and the World from the past year. Featuring @nateschenkkan.bsky.social and @bretdevereaux.bsky.social among others: foreignpolicy.com/2025/12/30/t...

A look back at 5 of @foreignpolicy.com's best pieces on Trump, America and the World from the past year. Featuring @nateschenkkan.bsky.social and @bretdevereaux.bsky.social among others: foreignpolicy.com/2025/12/30/t...

True must-read essay on bringing the Cold War back into Turkish history. I'm probably going to keep reposting this at random throughout the year www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

The good folks at Turkey recap did a great job gathering insights from scholars and analysts on the direction Turkey is likely to go in 2026. I was proud to be among such fine company. www.turkeyrecap.com/p/2026-predi...

No evidence this is what got trump elected. The data don’t back it up.

The problem with this premise is a hypothetical president AOC or (insert progressive here) would almost certainly be filled with a bunch of overconfident, uninformed ninnies albeit for reasons entirely different from those animating Sullivan and co.

The Hessians weren’t drunk fools. Washington still outmaneuvered them.

RAND's 157 page Spatial Vision for Palestine is a truly remarkable document www.rand.org/pubs/researc...

“The United States, according to the New York Times, has a Maginot Line problem. The problem is that Monsieur Maginot’s infamous namesake fortification has little to do with what really happened in 1940.” Me in Foreign Policy (gift link) foreignpolicy.com/2025/12/18/f...

“Maybe, one day, Israel should hint that it’s open to the concept of a Palestinian state, but you know, or not really a state, a state minus.” This is what passes for realism these days…

A lot of Quincy aligned folks have - rightly - argued there should be accountability for pundits who supported the Iraq war. Would be fun to see them apply that principle to everyone who insisted we should give Trump's foreign policy the benefit of the doubt

This whole paragraph is a master class in shameless euphemism

One Year on, U.S. Sanctions Are Killing Syria’s Recovery foreignpolicy.com/2025/12/16/s...

It would be nice to see a less whiny, less reactionary piece looking at the generational dynamic here: www.compactmag.com/article/the-...

Well put by Christian Caryl foreignpolicy.com/2025/12/15/t...

It is such a low bar that we ought to be able to condemn the horrific antisemitic terror attack in Australia without either: A. Implying that Israel somehow justifies or at least relativizes it, OR: B. Implying we need to blame all Muslims and/or immigrants. And yet...

A delightful essay from Graham Cornwell looking back at How Soccer Explains the World two decades on: foreignpolicy.com/2025/12/12/f...

A delightful essay from Graham Cornwell looking back at How Soccer Explains the World two decades on: foreignpolicy.com/2025/12/12/f...

Ever worry that the algorithm knows you too well?

I wrote about the Muslims

A thoughtful piece by my @centuryintl.bsky.social colleague Dahlia Scheindlin www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

Designating MB as terrorist is “comparable to what RFK Jr is doing to vaccines –a manifestly harmful policy driven by crackpot ideologues using state power to impose their fringe views based on no evidence to win applause from the worst right wing radicals.” abuaardvarkghost.ghost.io/the-muslim-b...

This is a true story

Another spot-on essay from @joestieb.bsky.social

New episode 📢📢 Reuben Silverman (@reubensilverman.bsky.social) on the rise and fall of Turkey’s Democrat Party 👇👇 turkeybooktalk.com/2025/12/09/r...

My assessment of the Trump national security strategy: "it sees the United States’ adversaries as partners in that war, but it does not see how much U.S. power relies on the voluntary assistance of other countries."

A great piece by Jay Sexton on Trump and the Monroe Doctrine foreignpolicy.com/2025/12/08/m...

Silverman's going to be a huge name in Turkish Studies... and his monograph directly addresses a large gap in the English-language scholarship.

Israel is talking itself into a rivalry with Turkey that both aggrandizes Turkey's actual role in the region and compounds the isolation that Israel has suffered because of overstretch during the Gaza War. 46028222.hs-sites.com/press-releas...

A lot of countries have started murdering drug dealers without ever electing Obama president.

"In eschewing justice and accountability and neglecting the root causes of these conflicts, these Potemkin peace plans risk returning us to a model of conflict resolution where might makes right and to the genocidaire go the spoils. foreignpolicy.com/2025/11/26/t...

From the outset, the whole critique of "disinformation" contained some condescending assumptions about who could accurately define the truth

a true must read: newlinesmag.com/reportage/in...

Some great stuff from this year's @foreignpolicy.com Holiday Gift guide foreignpolicy.com/2025/11/26/h...

Having survived Assad and the Islamic State, Yazidis remain suspicious of Sharaa’s government. foreignpolicy.com/2025/11/28/s...

Some great stuff from this year's @foreignpolicy.com Holiday Gift guide foreignpolicy.com/2025/11/26/h...

"In eschewing justice and accountability and neglecting the root causes of these conflicts, these Potemkin peace plans risk returning us to a model of conflict resolution where might makes right and to the genocidaire go the spoils. foreignpolicy.com/2025/11/26/t...

David Brooks really sucks.

"By the second course, I was out of small talk, so I plunged in: 'How did this war start, anyway? foreignpolicy.com/2025/11/20/m...

I hate this sort of meme. “The only difference between the parties is whether the power to destroy human civilization rests in the hands of leaders who think gays, women, and black people should have their rights acknowledged.” Even if true, how is Rainbow B-52 not infinitely preferable?

"By the second course, I was out of small talk, so I plunged in: 'How did this war start, anyway? foreignpolicy.com/2025/11/20/m...

The Atlantic, explaining why you shouldn't let AI have your conversations for you:

I wrote about writing about Turkey

My latest, for @foreignpolicy.com: "Twenty-two years after the fall of Saddam Hussein, it’s worth acknowledging: Iraq is still standing, still voting, and still trying." Gift Link here: foreignpolicy.com/2025/11/17/i...

I wrote something last month about how this and the similar Russian case were USG cooperation in transnational repression: foreignpolicy.com/2025/10/08/t...

Trump, at the urging of Rod Blagojevich, lifted sanctions on former Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik. That, I argue in @foreignpolicy.com, is a win for Putin and instability at Europe’s expense. foreignpolicy.com/2025/11/10/t...

I find Ankara's eagerness to send troops to Gaza as part of the international stabilization force as bold of a move as its positioning in the aftermath of the Arab uprisings.