Go to the movies or visit the bookstore and you’ll see that war stories are everywhere—whether the protagonists are gods, super-heroes, or human beings. But author and West Point professor Elizabeth D. Samet warns that the appeal of the good war story obscures the complexity of conflict and shapes the way we view current international tensions.

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The war in Vietnam was the first war in U.S. history fought by a fully-integrated military. But award-winning author and journalist Wil Haygood says that the challenge beyond the battlefield was that American society was not as fully integrated as the fighting force that served it—and that difference had impacts in Vietnam and at home

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From World War II through the Cold War, and into this century, the Voice of America and its journalists demonstrated the strength and power of a free society and the weakness of America’s enemies. Now, Patsy Widakuswara—a seasoned veteran of VOA—finds herself at the heart of a legal battle over the future existence of the Voice of America. 

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Some are concerned that the advantages autocracies like Russia and China have over democracies like the United States are insurmountable. But Ambassador Michael McFaul argues that it’s just the opposite—that it’s the very messiness of American democracy that is the source of our greatest strength. 

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As a candidate in 2016 and 2024, Donald Trump promised to crack down on undocumented immigrants—and after one year in office, the president has moved fast. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Caitlin Dickerson says that the policies and their implementation come with a very high price—for the immigrants and even for U.S. officials. 

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It’s easy to be skeptical of idealistic notions of American power, the indispensable nation that some have talked about, when the history of the last 25 years is of misguided conflicts in the Middle East and a democratic backsliding at home. But through it all, Washington Post columnist Shadi Hamid takes readers through a compelling case for American power. 

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Nearly one in four doctors in the U.S. is foreign-born—many from South Asia—and they often serve in rural and underserved urban communities where American physicians are scarce. Harvard medical historian Eram Alam describes the public health challenges posed when immigrants are frequently met with suspicion in the communities they serve.

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As 2025 draws to a close, we look back on the major stories that shaped public life in the last year with Evelyn Farkas of the McCain Institute at Arizona State University.

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During the Renaissance, ruling families like the Medicis funded the creation of great works of art that dazzle us to this day. In the modern era, the ability of democracies to fund the arts is often contentious and even controversial. Arts advocate Erin Harkey discusses the value of art in public life.

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An alarming number of Americans are receptive to the lure of conspiracy thinking. Pollster Stephen Clermont unpacks the most popular conspiracy theories and what they tell us about current American politics.

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