World Affairs

The UN complex in NYC is an international zone belonging to all member states, with its own postal service, fire department, and security forces.

It is unclear how NATO would respond if Russia attempted a limited hybrid attack or incursion on the alliance's territory.

The REAL ID requirement was passed in response to the 9/11 attacks, but was not implemented until 2025.

During the Cold War, a mid-air fire led to a nuclear bomber crash in Greenland that left a piece of a hydrogen bomb missing to this day.

The US and Denmark signed a military agreement over Greenland in 1951.

In 1975, the Soviet Union fired a space cannon as part of testing a defense system that would prevent anyone from approaching and inspecting Soviet military satellites.

In 2026, the world's third-smallest country changed its name from Nauru to Naoero to return to the spelling and pronunciation that align with its national language.

After the World Trade Center attacks, all bridges and tunnels were closed, and civilian ships helped evacuate roughly half a million people from Manhattan.

Queen Elizabeth II ordered the US national anthem played at Buckingham Palace in the days after 9/11.

9/11 permanently changed air travel security in the US with the creation of the Transportation Security Administration.

US intelligence warned in multiple reports of al-Qaida's plans to strike before 9/11.

9/11 reshaped US foreign and military policy for decades, shifting focus to non-state actors and the Middle East.

Welcome to Gander, a tiny town of around 10,000 people in Newfoundland, which took in nearly 7,000 passengers for days after the 9/11 attacks grounded all air travel in the US.

343 members of the Fire Department of New York died on 9/11 trying to rescue people from the World Trade Center.

Osama bin Laden declared jihad—a call for armed struggle framed as a religious duty—against the US in 1996.

See intact objects found in the wreckage of Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania after its 40 passengers and crew stormed the cockpit, stopping the hijackers from reaching their likely target, the US Capitol Building.

The 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force has been used by four administrations to justify military operations in 22 countries.

Vladimir Putin was the first world leader to call Bush after 9/11, and visited the US two months later.

Decades of instability in the Middle East, including the Soviet-Afghan war, gave rise to al-Qaeda.

The treaty's Article 5 requires mutual defense, but not necessarily military action.

The origins of Ukrainian identity are a matter of historical debate.

Protests in Ukraine from 2013 to 2014 set the stage for the current conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

NATO was founded in 1949.

Hear the reasoning behind Trump's resurrection of the Monroe Doctrine in 2025.

Eleanor Roosevelt transformed the role of the first lady of the United States.

See an animated map of the entire Cold War.

NATO consists of 32 countries across North America and Europe.

China doubled its nuclear stockpile between 2020 and 2025, with plans for further expansion.

As of 2025, every NATO member spent at least 2% of GDP on defense, a target the alliance had been pushing toward for over a decade.

Language and regional differences are faults lines in Ukraine's conflict.

British economist John Maynard Keynes originally proposed a global currency called the bancor.

The United Nations was founded in San Francisco in 1945.

See South Korea's nighttime light usage, which far surpasses that of North Korea.

Faithless electors have never changed the outcome of a US presidential election.

Hear how the US and Iran went from close allies to bitter adversaries after the 1979 revolution.

The attack at Pearl Harbor led to the world's first around-the-world commercial flight.

Japan's imperial expansion in Asia in the 1930s set the stage for war with the US.

See a visualization of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Unconditional birthright citizenship is rare outside the Americas.

Early American citizenship was defined inconsistently by individual states.

See where the 100 million barrels of crude oil the world consumes daily end up.

OPEC's 1973 embargo sparked the first global energy shock.

OPEC (the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) has grown from five to 12 members since 1960.

Explore a visual history of Air Force One.

European leaders pursued appeasement of Hitler in the 1930s, hoping to avoid war.

Ukraine once had the third-largest nuclear arsenal—and gave them all up by 1996.

NATO was formed in 1949 to deter Soviet expansion, prevent European militarism, and encourage political integration.

Read the New York Times 2016 obituary of Fidel Castro, the defining figure of the Cuban Revolution.

Pre-revolution Cuba was prosperous—and deeply unequal.

The Cuban Revolution, from 1953 to 1959, overthrew the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista and established the first socialist state in the Western Hemisphere.