Essays

Digital technology is enabling the spread of news and information across borders and around the world on an unprecedented scale. Yet, the challenges and risks facing professional journalists have never been greater. The executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists tells the story.

Tests for Egyptian Journalists

By Naomi Sakr

Despite hopes for greater press freedom after the 2011 uprising, Egypt today is one of the most dangerous places in the world for reporters. Battling censors and evading detention is all in a day’s work.

Hollywood’s Bad Arabs

By Jack G. Shaheen

For decades, American films and TV programs have vilified Arabs as villains and terrorists. Now a new generation of directors and producers is challenging racial, gender, and religious stereotypes—and making us laugh and think at the same time.

From Pinstripes to Tweets

By R. S. Zaharna

Gone are the days when diplomats could control messages crafted to influence foreign governments and citizens of other nations. Thanks to social media tools, publics are talking back—and to each other. Diplomacy will never be the same.

Putin the Spoiler

By Lilia Shevtsova

With his undeclared war on Ukraine, the Russian president destroyed the post-Cold War system of mutual security commitments. In a quest to sustain his power, “Mr. Nobody” has released forces that he cannot contain.

The Man Behind “Unmanned”

By Robert Greenwald

A Hollywood director tells how he tracked down an American drone pilot and Pakistani victims of drone strikes to make the powerful documentary film Unmanned: America’s Drone Wars.

Compromise in Kabul

By Thomas Barfield

Ashraf Ghani became the new president of Afghanistan in a power-sharing deal that followed a contested election. Can he now address poor governance, corruption and the Taliban insurgency?

What Went Wrong

By Edward Girardet

The American-led invasion and occupation of Afghanistan is proving to be a failure. A military approach thwarted a long-term development strategy for the country. With foreign troops on the way out, the country braces for its uncertain fate.

The Taliban Question

By Zahid Hussain

It is unlikely that the Taliban insurgency will topple the Kabul government and return to power anytime soon. But the group could command the Pashtun region—and threaten security in Pakistan across the border.

New Threat to Afghan Women

By Manizha Naderi

Afghanistan has recorded tremendous progress in women’s rights. The world must understand how this achievement is an essential component of the rule of law and advance to democracy.

Road to Gandamak

By William Dalrymple

“Not one benefit, political or military, has been acquired with this war.” That was G.R. Gleig, writing in 1843 about the British retreat from Afghanistan. While the West may have forgotten the Afghan hatred of foreign rule, Afghans have not.

Tray of Candies

By Qais Akbar Omar

Kabul Memoir: An Afghan writer recalls family disagreements, and a wise patriarch’s way of settling them.

Eyeing the Generals

By Shuja Nawaz

Pakistan is watching the battle of two Sharifs—Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif versus powerful army chief General Raheel Sharif. A political crisis is fueling tensions between the country’s civil and military institutions.

Scramble for Iraq

By Nabeel Khoury

America’s toppling of Saddam Hussein unleashed new forces in the Middle East. The latest fallout: the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

Images from a Land At War

By Robert Nickelsberg

“Face to face with the fragility of the human condition”—a portfolio of a veteran photojournalist’s work in Afghanistan spanning twenty-five years.

The Art Effect

By David Joselit

Art in our age is more than the Mona Lisa. The construction of major new museums like the Mathaf Arab Museum of Modern Art in Qatar and even an outpost of the Louvre in Abu Dhabi reflects the expansion of a global civil society.

Collapsing Certainties

By Partha Mitter

Art history that presents the Western canon as universal creates a world of inclusions and exclusions, undermining local voices and practices. Let us consider a redefinition of cosmopolitanism that demands the study of art in its social and cultural setting.

Tehran Bazaar

By Joobin Bekhrad

The capital of the Islamic Republic is the new art mecca? When it comes to culture, it’s not your ayatollah’s Iran anymore. Despite continuing pressures including censorship, the country’s art scene is flourishing.

Revolution to Revolution

By Nadia Radwan