The contradictory, sometimes menacing messages from the Kremlin have stumped Western officials and Russia experts, showing the Russian leader’s desire to keep his rivals on edge. President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has spent months massing close to 100,000 troops near the Ukraine border. But Moscow says it has no …

Negotiations to form a new government in Iraq have entered a final, decisive phase, with the process shaping up to be a dispiriting contest among several factions that unfortunately share broadly similar authoritarian characteristics. The disputes over power-sharing arrangements and government positions are complicated, and the final lineup is still …

Much has already been said about the recent heightening of U.S.-China tensions and its potential fallout. What gets less attention is how the U.S. and China themselves perceive the status of their relationship, and how that affects their plans for the future. An analysis of prevailing elite opinion in the …

More even than most crises, the events unfolding in Kazakhstan in recent days can be read in myriad ways. On one level, it clearly appears to have resulted in yet another opportunity for Russian President Vladimir Putin to claw back control over domains lost by the Kremlin following the demise …

The history of the United States in the postwar era is replete with American efforts to change other nations. These projects often failed to achieve their goals, but few so completely as the recent one in Afghanistan. After 20 years, a great many lives lost, and untold billions spent, the …

The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan this past August brought an end to a 20-year war. But as a series of recent investigations by The New York Times has underscored, it also marked the beginning of postmortems about what the United States did right and, in some cases, did wrong. Drawing …

The visit followed the Iranian foreign minister’s trip to Oman. Qatar and Iran’s top diplomats met in Doha today. Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani hosted his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian for an official visit. They discussed bilateral relations and unspecified “regional developments,” according to a statement from …

The advance could relieve pressure on embattled Marib if pro-government forces can hold their ground. Yemeni pro-government forces claimed to have retaken the country’s entire southern province of Shabwa from Houthi rebels. The Giants Brigade, a pro-government militia backed by the United Arab Emirates, claimed to have captured the province …

Iraq announced a similar incident late last year. Iraqi forces arrested several people who allegedly attempted to enter the country illegally via the Syrian border today. Iraq’s Security Media Cell said 62 “infiltrators” of Syrian nationality were arrested. The Iraqi border guard and the Kurdistan Region’s peshmerga forces conducted the …

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) is requiring Arabs displaced from all Syrian regions who are living in the areas under their control to obtain an expatriate card to be allowed to enter or remain. The local authorities in northeast Syria have demanded all Arab refugees from all Syrian regions …