The Philippines has drawn Beijing’s ire across the South China Sea, while Vietnam is expanding in the region as China looks the other way.

The United States usually pays 22 percent of the regular U.N. budget and around 26 percent of the peacekeeping budget, thus Trump’s decision not to provide even obligatory contributions this year has left a big hole, J. Alex Tarquinio writes.

By recognizing Trump’s flash-to-fizzle arc, advocates, policymakers, and U.S. allies can work more effectively to exert their influence on the administration and push Trump more quickly up his learning curve, writes Suzanne Nossel.

FP’s @ravireports.bsky.social spoke with Majed al-Ansari, the spokesperson of Qatar’s ministry of foreign affairs, about Israel’s attack on Hamas leadership in Doha on Sept. 9, Qatar’s role in mediating between Hamas and Israel, and more. foreignpolicy.com/2025/09/22/q...

As world leaders convene in New York City this week for the U.N.’s high-level meetings, stay up to date with FP’s ongoing coverage and reporting on the ground:

Olia Hercules’s new memoir, “Strong Roots,” is a beautiful exercise in preservation, writes Natalia Antonova.

Too few export controls and the U.S risks losing its most powerful chips. Too strict of a blockade and China’s AI firms will be all in on self-sufficiency.

Many genuine opponents of Putin’s regime could now be threatened by the Trump administration’s immigration policies, writes Christian Caryl.

“We’re an asset, not a liability,” the de facto Taiwanese ambassador to the U.S. told FP.

World leaders and diplomats will flood into New York City in the coming days for the annual high-level week of the United Nations General Assembly. Here’s what we’re watching for:

The EU’s slow-but-steady economic onslaught stands in sharp contrast to U.S. inaction.

Colombia is trying to flip the script by spearheading global action for drug policy reform.

If other powers see the United States retaining its privileges without paying its dues, then they may follow suit.

In recent years, China has offered a range of childcare subsidies and tax breaks to encourage family formation. But these measures are unlikely to work, writes Emma Zang.

Ethnic and religious majorities worldwide fear cultural dilution.

Sen. Adam Schiff told Foreign Policy that Trump’s Venezuela boat strikes are “a dangerous, lawless thing to do.”

The Trump administration labeled Bogotá as noncooperative in Washington’s global anti-narcotics work, with Trump writing that Colombia’s failure to meet its drug control obligations “rests solely with its political leadership.”

The handshake snub reflects uncharted territory for India-Pakistan relations.

Today, the people defining what constitutes warlike acts are not politicians or political scientists but underwriters, columnist @elisabethbraw.bsky.social explains.

I wrote about whether the U.S. will leave the UN for @foreignpolicy.com (...probably not 😨) and how having a "semi-detached" Washington affect the world organization. foreignpolicy.com/2025/09/19/t...

📣My analytical op-ed in @ForeignPolicy on AI-powered information warfare. Is the window for combating AI-driven propaganda is closing? Local, open-weight models let State, non-state and micro-operators run industrial-scale influence ops with no central points. foreignpolicy.com/2025/09/18/a...

The tendency to see assassination as a legitimate political tactic is a symptom of the broader erosion of norms in contemporary politics, both between states and within them, writes columnist @stephenwalt.bsky.social.

Western democracies with universal access to AI capabilities but unequal control over information spaces are especially exposed to risk, not only during elections but in any crisis or conflict, writes @lukaszolejnik.bsky.social.

Through many of his actions, Trump is siding with and thereby promoting strongman politics in a continent with a dismal and not terribly remote history of this kind of rule, columnist @hofrench.bsky.social writes.

Keir Starmer has been in office as Britain’s prime minister for a little longer than a year—and currently enjoys only a 22 percent approval rating among the public. FP’s Cameron Abadi and Adam Tooze discuss what went wrong.

The United Nations has warned of worsening malnutrition among Sahrawi refugees in Algeria, as U.N. agencies and nongovernmental organizations have scaled back aid due to lack of funding.

“America and Europe are losing Georgia to the Russians without trying anything,” Salome Zourabichvili told FP.

The United States and China kicked off a new round of trade talks in Spain on Sunday.

Thirteen years after his name briefly became one of the most searched on the internet, Kony continues to evade justice.

Happening now: @adamtooze.bsky.social joins FP Live to discuss the future of global development. Watch the live interview here: foreignpolicy.com/live/adam-to...

While Erdogan maintains his lead in dismantling democratic institutions, he has fallen behind in geopolitical provocations.

The demise of Angela Rayner, Keir Starmer’s deputy prime minister, and Peter Mandelson, former British ambassador to the United States, are just the latest in a string of disasters that have marred Keir Starmer’s tenure as prime minister.

The age of a politically neutral, universally endorsed development agenda is over. But this doesn’t mean chaos is inevitable, writes Adam Tooze.

Trump’s own economic policies threaten to accelerate the erosion of the U.S. dollar’s centrality and appeal.

With several months still left, 2025 is already on track to be a historically violent year in the United States, FP’s @jchaltiwanger.bsky.social reports.

Further severing the financial link between the West Bank and Israel will disrupt trade in the occupied territory and isolate Palestinians from the global financial system.

The National Rally shares plenty of common ground with the U.S. right, but the party is having to contend with Trump’s polarizing image among the very voters they seek to mobilize, reports @colestangler.bsky.social.

How does the cost of doing business with Russia compare with the cost of not doing business with Trump?

New military reforms come on top of other government blunders that throw a damning light on the president’s closest circle of advisors.

The growing friction between Israel and Egypt not only jeopardizes a pillar of Israel’s regional security but also undermines its broader strategic position in the Middle East, Michael Harari and @gabiamitchell.bsky.social write.

Sept. 13 marked five years of incarceration without bail or trial for Indian activist Umar Khalid, who is detained on terrorism charges that appear politically motivated, writes Betwa Sharma.

If the Serbian people truly desire the restoration of democracy, they must reject the imperial megalomania of its leaders, writes Jasmin Mujanović.

The Kirk shooting is one of a string of recent high-profile shootings where the perpetrators mixed violence and mayhem with memes and arcane references to deep corners of the internet, Aja Romano writes.

Iran maintains that it will not resume full cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency as long as the threat of additional sanctions looms.

In FP’s inaugural Southeast Asia Brief, Jakarta-based journalist Joseph Rachman reports on how Vietnam is being impacted by U.S. tariffs, turmoil in Thai politics, and more from the region.

It’s admirable for U.S. officials to want to make the world a better place, but when policy diverges from reality, then failure is likely to be the result.

Until U.S. regulatory systems raise risk tolerance and streamline requirements, the localization of development—a goal for many aid experts and organizations—will remain more rhetoric than reality, write Dennis Vega and Daphne McCurdy.

As Russia and Iran reveal, autocracies have systematic weaknesses that are consistent blind spots for U.S. military analysts.

FP’s @beijingpalmer.bsky.social reviews two recent books on the British royals to prod at the inherent unreliability of biography—and the family's connections to a couple of bad eggs.

Finland avoided full subjugation to Moscow thanks to a combination of the broader geopolitical context and its own defense preparedness—not by being friendly toward the Soviets.