Hugh White warns of a potential war between the US and China, drawing lessons from the first and second world wars to explore how Australia might respond to such a conflict – and where to draw a line.
Russia denies targeting civilians. But it was the same with its bombing campaign in Syria.
In this March 2003 photo, Iraqi soldiers surrender to U.S. Marines following a gunfight. The war has loomed over geopolitical events for the past 19 years.
(AP Photo/Laura Rauch, File)
The most direct cause of America’s ongoing harrowing descent, including the rise of Donald Trump and his alliance with Vladimir Putin, began 19 years ago with the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
V is for victory? Or vanquished?
Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images
A military historian and U.S. Army veteran explains how wars are not easy to win – something political leaders often forget when looking at the calculus of conflict.
Smoke and flame rise near a military building after an apparent Russian strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Feb. 24, 2022.
(AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
A western ‘do as I say, not as I do’ approach has helped provoke Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Dutch defence minister, Ank Bijleveld, and air force colonel Peter Tankink briefing journalists about a raid on an car factory in Hawija in November 2015 in which more than 70 civilians were killed.
EPA-EFE/Lex van Lieshout
A scholar of African American studies explores how the former secretary of state, who died at 84, dealt with what WEB DuBois described as the ‘double-consciousness’ of being Black and American.
French President Emmanuel Macron talks to U.S. President Joe Biden at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization headquarters in Brussels on June 14, 2021.
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Despite a ‘major breach of trust,’ the recent spat between France and the US corresponds to a long cycle of conflict and rapprochement between the two countries.
In a time of increasingly complex geopolitical entanglements and moral failings, these films articulate a yearning for unsullied heroism, effective leadership and appropriate responses to crises.
America’s political leaders rushed the nation into war just weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, just like ancient Greeks and Romans did in response to similar traumatic events.
David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images
Ancient Athenians and Romans also let shared mass tragedies propel justifications for going to war – even when it wasn’t clear what that violence would solve.
Every soldier has a different story.
Yuri Cortez/AFP via Getty Images
The act of killing in combat is associated with heightened risks of PTSD and suicide. A scholar interviewed 30 veterans about their common experiences.
Heading for the exit.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
Following the completion of the US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, Neta Crawford, the co-director of the Costs of War Project, reflects on 7,268 days of American involvement in the conflict.
On Aug. 16, 2021, thousands of Afghans trapped by the sudden Taliban takeover rushed the Kabul airport tarmac.
AP Photo/Shekib Rahmani
Gordon Adams, American University School of International Service
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the US Afghanistan pullout is not a repeat of failures in other recent wars. “This is not Saigon,” he said. A seasoned foreign policy expert disagrees.
The U.S. military is handing the keys over to Afghan forces.
Joe Marek/U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
For much of the country’s history, Americans won their wars decisively, with the complete surrender of enemy forces and the home front’s perception of total victory.