In 2026, the world’s first trillionaire—following the recent stock debut of SpaceX—Elon Musk has remained one of the most influential figures in American politics. After campaigning for Donald Trump in 2024 and initially playing a leading role in the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Musk has remained a constant presence in the headlines. One of his latest political clashes came with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) over the impact of DOGE's cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Citing a 2025 Lancet study, Khanna argued the reductions were "potentially a death...

Poison once sang that every rose has its thorn. Georgia’s Rose Revolution had plenty. Eduard Shevardnadze returned to Georgia in 1992 after the collapse of the Soviet Union, stepping into a country already torn apart by civil war and ethnic divisions. He was seen early on as a stabilizing figure and had enough international credibility to hold things together. Washington quickly built ties in Tbilisi, and high-level engagement followed, including visits from Secretary of State James Baker. While Georgia leaned more toward the West, its trajectory was anything but certain. Meanwhile, the...

"Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty were critically important weapons in the free world's competition with Soviet totalitarianism—and without them the Soviet bloc might even have not disintegrated." This was the assessment of Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national security advisor to President Jimmy Carter and one of the most influential foreign policy strategists of the Cold War era. Brzezinski’s description is notable not only because of who said it, but because of how he described the organization. He did not characterize Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty as merely a U.S.-funded news...

By the summer of 2000, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milošević appeared firmly entrenched in power. A decade earlier, he had risen to prominence by harnessing Serbian nationalism as Yugoslavia began to fracture. Over time, he consolidated control over political institutions and much of the media while leading Serbia through wars, sanctions, and NATO’s 1999 bombing campaign. Yet beneath the surface, public frustration was growing. The economy was struggling, unemployment remained high, and many Serbians had grown weary of international isolation and authoritarian rule. When Milošević changed...