Foreign Affairs

Separated from China by a roughly 100-mile-wide strait, Taiwan relies on its navy as the first line of defense against a potential invasion. It must be able to prevent an assault by a Chinese force carried across the Taiwan Strait in large amphibious ships.

In a world of great-power standoffs, climatic tipping points, and technological arms races, global hunger may not seem like a particularly significant problem. Yet last year, a total of 2.1 billion people, or more than a quarter of the planet’s population, experienced food insecurity—meaning they either ran out of food over the course of a year or were forced to reduce the quality or quantity of their diet.

Play Listen to the Episode 00:00 / 00:00 MP3 Close audio player There has been no shortage of dizzying shifts in American foreign policy since Donald Trump returned to the White House last year. But perhaps none have been as surprising as the shift on China. In his first term, Trump helped create a hard-line consensus centered on fears of a growing threat. Now, he seems much more interested in striking deals—as he presumably will be when Xi Jinping comes to Washington later this month.

Among its many advantages, the United States benefits from a rare form of geographic luck: it is bracketed on the east and west by two vast moats in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and only two neighbors to the north and south, both of whom are relatively friendly. Adding to this good fortune is that, since the end of World War II, the United States has possessed a powerful nuclear arsenal and unparalleled military, economic, and technological might.

Six months in, the U.S. and Israeli war on Iran has settled into a stalemate. Neither Washington nor Tehran can achieve a clear military or diplomatic victory. Instead, the two sides have found themselves locked in a mutual blockade of oil and other shipments through the Strait of Hormuz and into Iranian ports, with no obvious way to change the status quo.

In July, Bloomberg reported that for the first time in roughly two decades of Pew Research Center global polling, the world now views China more favorably than the United States. The sentiment was not universal, but in 25 of the 36 countries surveyed this year, the percentage of respondents who gave favorable marks to China exceeded that for the United States, including several close U.S. allies.

As he prepares to face Israeli voters next month after three years of incessant war, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has formulated a new strategy. Ignoring the huge costs in blood and treasure, let alone in support for Israel in the United States and elsewhere, he now publicly and explicitly supports waging wars without end.

In late October 2025, the automaker Honda had to indefinitely shutter a Mexican plant that manufactures its SUVs, thanks to an unanticipated shortage of parts. More than 2,000 miles away, in Canada, it had to slash the production of its popular Civic model in half. The shortage panicked companies across North America. Stellantis created a war room to monitor the availability of critical components, and Ford began to track the run-out dates for its inventory.

The United States, Russia, and China may not yet be in an arms race, but they are gearing up for one. Washington is building a new intercontinental ballistic missile, strategic bomber, and ballistic missile submarine. Russia is developing a heavy ICBM and a new warhead while planning upgrades to its submarines and bombers. China has dug more than 300 new missile silos and fielded air-launched ballistic missiles, and it is developing a new generation of submarines and a stealth bomber.

In early April, a convoy of 299 Iraqi fuel tankers crossed into Syria on its way to the Mediterranean port of Baniyas, one of the few remaining paths to international markets amid the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. It was the first time Iraqi oil had crossed through Syria legally since 2003, when the U.S. invasion of Iraq effectively shuttered the cross-border flow of oil from Iraq to Syria.