I was in Afghanistan when mujahideen guerrillas fought Soviet invaders. Three decades later, security remains precarious and peace a distant dream. Men walking from the Pakistan border into Afghan territory abandoned by Soviet-backed Afghan forces in 1988 (All photos...
Azerbaijan blames Armenia for a massacre of civilians in the South Caucasus. Armenia denies the charge. Meanwhile, lasting peace proves elusive. Victims of the Khojaly massacre, 1992 (Ilgar Jafarov/Wikimedia Commons) Azeris around the world this week mourn the 28th...
Wary of the coronavirus, North Korea has all but shut its borders, choking its economic lifelines. How grim a toll might the disease take? A wedding in Pyongyang (Photo by Sarah Edmonds) North Korea vaulted back into international headlines this month, with Western...
By Jonathan Thatcher WEST JAVA, Indonesia – Rizki doesn’t have a job. A high school graduate, he’s what my mother would have called “a nice young man” — well spoken, polite and conservatively dressed. He’s also too short. He may look of average height and be in...
The stark missteps recorded in the Afghanistan Papers recalled an historic about-face by an architect of the U.S. war in Vietnam. He was Robert McNamara, the Defense secretary who played a key role in escalating the conflict, only to end up wrestling with his...
The U.S. sends troops far from home on an ill-defined mission. Leaders lie. The conflict becomes a quagmire. That’s Afghanistan — or Vietnam redux. Family members of a U.S. soldier who died in Afghanistan look up as military helicopters fly over graveside...
Pro-democracy parties in Hong Kong have won a big electoral victory after months of protests. Will Beijing listen — or crack down? Pro-democracy protesters in Kowloon Bay, Hong Kong, China, 26 November 2019 (EPA-EFE/FAZRY ISMAIL) Six months into often violent...
When the Cold War ended, many thought international relations had entered a new era. Now, resurgent nationalism is fanning old animosities. Indian Hindu nationalists at a training camp in Ahmadabad, India, 1 June 2019 (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki) After the collapse of the...
Away from the hustle, an ancient rite unfolds in a Shanghai park. Parents looking to hitch offspring post want ads in a marriage mart. (Photo by Betty Fu) It’s a poignant ritual, played out every weekend in a shady corner of a Shanghai park. In People’s Park, scores...
A trip to Hong Kong taught me why Cantonese opera and ca trù singing, which I once thought boring, are so important to cultural identity. Like many young people, I used to consider ancient art forms to be boring and old-fashioned. A recent trip to Hong Kong changed...