Sarah Birke

Mexico’s Politics of Bitterness

On the eve of Mexico’s presidential elections, Andrés Manuel López Obrador maintains a high approval rating. But his constitutional chicanery and disregard for the law have undermined democracy, and his divisive rhetoric has polarized the country.

Shinzo Abe, Pursued by Scandal

Shinzo Abe’s approval rating has sunk to 26.7 percent, the lowest since he took office in 2012. His party—and voters in general—face the question of whether the price of keeping him on outweighs the positive effects of his tenure.

How ISIS Rules

Its ability to maintain power depends overwhelmingly on outright repression

How ISIS Rules

How did the ordinary Syrian city of Raqqa, a provincial center with few jihadist or even Islamist tendencies, become capital of the Islamic State?

Syria's New Jihadists

Arab and European jihadists are being indoctrinated and trained in the world’s most active battle zone—experience they may someday bring home.

Damascus: What’s Left

While the brutal devastation caused by the Syrian conflict has affected many parts of the country, the government has long sought to portray Damascus as an oasis of calm. But under the surface things aren’t the same in the capital.

Twilight in Damascus

One morning last week, while visiting a friend’s house on the outskirts of the old city of Damascus, I heard high-pitched voices shouting “*Irhal ya Bashar*!” (“Leave, o Bashar”). I peered out the window onto the street but couldn’t see anything. Later, when I went out, I tracked the chants to children innocently swinging to and fro on a large rusty metal swing in the street. The protest chant against Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad would be nothing out of the ordinary in Homs, the city near the Lebanese border that has been a center of the Syrian revolt, but to hear it from children’s mouths in the heart of the capital shows how far the revolution has spread.