Outside the Beltway

The most important and controversial American diplomat of the postwar era is gone at 100.

A competent leader versus a lunatic would seem an easy choice. Alas.

A high-stakes move.

Our limited attention spans.

We won’t have Kevin to kick around anymore.

A longtime friend has passed.

There has been a steady decline the last five years.

Finally, a rationale that makes sense.

Is America’s military capable of fighting the next war?

After giving a softball interview, he apparently expected one in return.

The US intelligence community and Silicon Valley are warning of a major threat.

A bad idea backed up by worse reasoning.

The Pope is siding with evil.

As memory of the Cold War fades, so does support for American primacy.

Many in the Global South see the war very differently than we in the West.

It’s probably not strange visitors from outer space but we can’t rule it out.

An object lesson on the challenges of alliance politics.

We’re all gonna die, folks.

Ezra Klein has some thought on the Republican Party.

A more dangerous world is changing the relationship.

A controversial artillery round is being used effectively against Russian forces.

A 34-year CIA officer’s thoughts.

The collaboration has been even more robust than advertised.

A dramatic if likely symbolic move.

The threat is not idle and the options for responding are not good.

The ayatollahs face the biggest challenge to their authority in the history of the regime.

The last Soviet leader is gone at 91.

A 2020 blowout has long been presumed. But maybe it won’t happen.

Moscow is playing a very strange game.

The competition is slowly ratcheting up.

Normalcy is not a bad thing.

Foreign policy makes strange bedfellows.

They’re stealing our secrets and working to undermine our elections.

A diplomatic nightmare brewing since last week is now upon us.

The West continues to close Moscow off.

A trailblazing diplomat has died at 84.

Ukraine’s leader wants more help than he’s going to get.

We can only hope.

The most likely outcome is not a happy one.

Strikes near the Polish border show the real possibility of escalation.

He’s tanned. He’s rested. Is he ready?

The disintegrating military situation is leading to escalating brutality.

The American President is once again leading the free world.

Pundits like Thomas Friedman struggle with premature prognostication.

NATO has stepped up in a pleasantly surprising way to resist the Ukraine invasion.

Putin’s forces are in Kyiv.

The first shoe has dropped.

The much-anticipated escalation has happened. Now to see how the United States and its allies respond.

His attacks are, in fact, the best case for tenure.

A pioneering Black actor is gone at 94.