5 News Stories That Made a Splash

The year is winding down not unlike how it began, with a stalemate in Russia’s war in Ukraine, a human rights nightmare in Afghanistan, coup attempts and civil wars in Africa, and an ongoing struggle by the powers that be to keep being powers by dominating the supply of critical resources and technology. There was, of course, the addition of a brutal war in the Middle East as a coda.

Foreign Policy’s news writers covered all of those developments in 2023. There were times our stories made a big splash—in Congress, within international agencies, or in other halls of power. Other times they just turned the spotlight exactly where it needed to be.

Here are some of the FP stories that packed the biggest punch this year.

1. An End to the War Doesn’t Mean the End of Putin

Amy Mackinnon, Feb. 27

Coming up on two years since Russia’s February 2022 invasion, questions abound over what will happen on the battlefield after Ukraine’s big summer counteroffensive foundered on Russian trenches and minefields. What hasn’t changed since this story by FP’s Amy Mackinnon is the critical importance of the war for the future of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s imperial project.

One thing seems clear: No matter how much of a meat grinder Ukraine becomes and no matter how many Russians are called to the colors, Moscow cannot stand down. “In Putin’s eyes, the alternative would be to lose 145 million Russians. It’s a question of Russia’s existence,” one expert said.

2. How Ukraine Learned to Fight

Jack Detsch, March 1

Ukraine, outmanned and outgunned by the much larger Russian invader, wouldn’t even be fighting to a stalemate if its Soviet-legacy armed forces hadn’t reinvented itself before and during the war, often with a little help from its Western friends. This story showed how Ukraine was able to tap into its own ingenuity, national spirit, and a bit of advanced Western gear to stall and even push back a behemoth that once thought it could take the country in a matter of days.

Foreign Policy illustration/Getty Images

3. How the U.S. Fumbled Sudan’s Hopes for Democracy

Robbie Gramer, May 10 

In the last two years, Sudan has gone from a tremulous democracy in transition to a military coup to a full-on civil war. And there has been one constant throughout: U.S. diplomatic bungling. Meanwhile, some 10,000 people are dead, millions of people are displaced, and the ghosts of Darfur have returned. This story offers a step-by-step chronicle of a diplomatic failure foretold, from the ineffective efforts to hold on to democracy to the even less fruitful U.S. attempts to roll back the 2021 coup. The fallout, like the war, continues: “Our trust in the U.S. is entirely gone,” one Sudanese person involved in the talks told FP’s Robbie Gramer.

4. America Dropped the Baton in the Rare-Earth Race

Christina Lu, June 23

If the United States has spent the last few years desperately trying to wean itself off reliance on China, few sectors have been the focus of more effort, more hand-wringing, and higher stakes than China’s stranglehold over the production and processing of the very special inputs that will make or break the energy transition and maybe a war chest or two. How did the onetime world leader in this formerly obscure space get so completely eclipsed, and why can’t it seem to catch back up? Wonder no more.

5. The Taliban Have ‘Infiltrated’ U.N. Deliveries of Aid

Lynne O’Donnell, July 24

Ever since the Trump administration (with an obliging assist from the Biden administration) handed Afghanistan over to the Taliban after 20 fruitless years of war, one big question has loomed: How can the international community hurt the bad guys and help the good ones? Turns out, it can’t. This story detailed the degree to which the Taliban have turned international efforts at assistance into yet another revenue stream for their back-to-the-Middle Ages agenda, with dire consequences for all involved.