Section: The Atlantic (USA)
The Danger of Putin Losing in Syria
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks to military officials in Moscow. Alexei Druzhinin / Pool Sputnik Kremlin / APLast September, Russia deployed dozens of jets to Syria to rescue the ailing regime of Bashar al-Assad. Vladimir Putin aimed to protect one of Moscow’s few foreign allies and gain leverage for the coming peace negotiations...
How to Tell the Difference Between a Nuclear Test and an Earthquake
A sales assistant watches TV sets broadcasting a news report on North Korea’s nuclear test, in Seoul, South Korea. Kim Hong-Ji / ReutersShortly after North Korea claimed it had tested a hydrogen bomb—a weapon potentially hundreds of times more powerful than the fission bombs the country had already set off—seismologists at the United States...
The World According to Russia
Vladimir Putin at his end-of-the-year news conference in Moscow Maxim Smeyev / Reuters“Do you realize what you have done?” Vladimir Putin demanded at the United Nations in September. The question was a rebuke to the Americaan-led bloc of countries that initially viewed with optimism the Arab Spring, which began five years ago this month, but has...
Brave New War
U.S. Navy / ReutersFrom China in Asia to Russia in Europe and the Middle East, and ISIS just about everywhere, 2015 has seen the flourishing of conflicts that exist in a gray zone, one which is not quite open war but more than regular competition, which is attuned to globalization, which liberal democracies are ill-equipped to deal with, and...
A Papal Message of Peace
L’Osservatore Romano /Pool / APPope Francis used his Christmas message to call for peace in parts of the world ravaged by violence and terrorism. Addressing the crowd at the Vatican from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica with his third Urbi et Orbi remarks on Christmas Day, Francis called for peace in Syria, which is in the midst of...
The 50 Best Podcast Episodes of 2015
Shutterstock / Kara Gordon / Paul Spella / The AtlanticMore than 300,000 podcasts exist in the world as of the close of 2015. They range from products made by someone pressing record in their closet to million-dollar outfits with sterling sound engineering. Objectives span from shining a light on underheard voices to the audio equivalent of a...
Vladimir Sorokin and the Russian Novel’s Identity Crisis
Maria Sorokina / FSG / Zak Bickel / The AtlanticVast, grand, breathtaking—English-language readers typically associate such words with the 19th-century Russian novel. Bleak, brave, subversive—those go with 20th-century Russian fiction. If it’s epic or dissident, we know how to make sense of it. Following the Soviet Union’s collapse in...
The Atlantic Daily: Obama’s Year in Review, Congress’s Spending Bill, Sanders Campaign Drama
Carlos Barria / ReutersWhat We’re Following: Obama Reflects on 2015 President Obama convened reporters at the White House for his annual end-of-the-year press conference on Friday. During the question-and-answer session, he expressed hope about sentencing reform for the upcoming year, defended his strategy to defeat ISIS, praised the...
The Ideology Behind the Putin-Trump Bromance
Adrees Latif / ReutersDuring Russian President Vladimir Putin’s marathon annual news conference on Thursday, the controversial leader heaped praise on Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump, calling the candidate “tremendous,” “very bright,” and “talented without any doubt.” By Thursday evening, Trump had released an equally warm...
The Global Conflicts to Watch in 2016
Center for Preventive Action / Council on Foreign RelationsIn the summer of 2012—around the time that the Islamic State’s inchoate plans for a caliphate merited a mere footnote in a U.S. congressional report on the year-old Syrian conflict—Robert Satloff argued that a civil war was taking shape in Syria, and that its terrible consequences...
