It’s far too soon to know what will come out of Afghanistan, but it is a timely reminder to think in terms of relationships before transactions, writes former diplomat David Landsman

When dealing with autocracies, the West reaches too quickly for the blunt tool of sanctions, or the threat of military intervention. It is time for us to upgrade our language regarding the wide variety of non-Western states and force ourselves to think more critically, better understand nuance, and work harder on coming up with solutions

There’s no disguising the fact that the world has got a whole lot more complicated, and that the West will only be really ‘back’ if it shows both creativity and persistence, writes David Lansman