A new UN report indicates that ties between the Taliban and al-Qaeda remain strong and could grow stronger following the U.S. troop withdrawal. Many remain skeptical that the Taliban possesses either the will or the capability to prevent al-Qaeda from rebuilding an external operations unit. If Afghanistan descends into chaos, …

A growing number of authoritarian regimes are turning to technology in their efforts to demolish trust in democratic principles and institutions. What does America’s most notorious conspiracy theory have to do with foreign policy? Quite a lot, it turns out. In recent years, QAnon—a series of theories about the existence …

The regime has shaped the field of candidates in the June 18 presidential election to favor the preferred choice of Iran’s Supreme Leader. The front-runner in the campaign, Judiciary chairman Ibrahim Raisi, is also Supreme Leader Ali Khamene’i’s choice to succeed him. The exclusion of most moderate and reformist candidates …