For Eli Lake's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Zarif says that Russia "put all its weight” against the deal because, as the Times dryly explains, "it was not in Moscow’s interests for Iran to normalize relations with the West.”
The Taliban announced it will not participate in peace talks in Turkey. That means the U.S. will be leaving Afghanistan’s government to fend for itself in the midst of a civil war.
The U.S. State Department’s new approach treated social media as a channel to learn what Iranians thought about both their own regime and U.S. policy.
Biden has signaled that his national security cabinet will be more centrist than the left flank of his party would like.
Avoiding calamity is not the same as wise statecraft. Trump’s final military act is reckless, particularly in Afghanistan.
Vladimir Putin is trying to convey the impression that he is just a concerned neighbor in the Belarusian crisis.
A president desperate for a win isn’t always in the best position to negotiate.
Yet the U.S. senator from Kentucky is right to point out that Congress is abdicating its responsibility.
The Trump administration's attempt to explain what happened to Michael Flynn isn't very revealing.
Tools that democracies need to fight a pandemic are not appropriate when it’s over.
