When I lived in Bishkek 25 years ago, then-president Askar Akayev was so effusive in expressing his desire for Kyrgyzstan to become the Switzerland of Central Asia that the Swiss ambassador once joked ...

With the US operation in Iran triggering fresh arms races, Russia’s turn from multipolarity to imperial nostalgia highlights ...

Years of sanctions have substantially weakened the Iranian economy, as evidenced by Iran’s keenness to have them cancelled, ...

The girl in the black Audrey Hepburn dress was crying in the bathroom, mascara running down her cheeks. We found her by chance—a total stranger using the bathroom of a hotel where we were hosting a ...

It was 2014, and I was standing in the ruins of Donetsk airport, when a Russian-backed rebel commander launched into what seemed like an oddly academic lecture. Between bursts of artillery fire, he ...

Headlines around the world have described Pavel Durov as Russia’s Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk but also the Robin Hood of the internet. These descriptions struggle to tell us anything of note because ...

Kim Stanley Robinson, London, 2014. Will Ireland/SFX Magazine/Future via Getty Images. An avid sci-fi fan, Musk says he will send the first ship to colonize the red planet by the end of this decade.

Protestors in Tbilisi, Georgia holding a poster that reads, “Do not fear! We will win honorably.” May, 2024. Photo Leli Blagonravova. The very nature of Russian colonialism doesn’t fit the Western ...

Police forces stand between counter-protesters and a pro-Palestine rally in Cologne, Germany on November 1, 2023. Ying Tang/NurPhoto via Getty Images. Following the October 7 assault in which Hamas ...

Inside Smart Aqkol’s “situation room.” Photos courtesy of the author. Kirpichnikov explained that residents can connect their gas meters to their bank accounts and set up automatic gas payments. This ...

Besmir Billa playing a traditional Albanian instrument, called the cifteli, in Kukes. All the while, there is a parallel reality playing out far from home, one that the people of Kukes see in glimpses ...