Our Top Long Reads From 2024

This year, Foreign Policy published many election-related news stories. But we are—at our core—a magazine, and feature writing is also an essential part of what we do. Below, you’ll find some of our favorite long reads of 2024, taking you from the small Pacific island nation of Nauru to a Swedish navy base on the eve of the country’s accession to NATO.

1. The Country With Nothing Left to Lose

by Christina Lu, Feb. 11

The tiny Pacific island nation of Nauru has the most tumultuous history you’ve never heard of. After Nauru gained independence in 1968, it became rich off its phosphate resources—until they ran out. Now, the island, which measures just 8.1 square miles, is strapped for cash and uniquely vulnerable to climate change.

In this reported feature, FP’s Christina Lu chronicles how Nauru is trying to chart a path forward. The country has leveraged diplomatic tensions for its own gain, trading cash for loyalty with Russia and switching allegiances from Taiwan to China. Most recently, Nauru has placed its bets on a contentious new form of resource extraction: deep-sea mining.

“The many contradictions of Nauru’s path here are as much a twisted tale of exploitation and extraction as they are a story of what one nation will do to survive,” Lu writes.

2. How Does the U.S.-China ‘Cold War’ End?

by Lili Pike, Sept. 19

If there is anything Democrats and Republicans agree on in Washington, it is that the United States and China are engaged in geopolitical competition. U.S.-China relations experienced a nadir during Donald Trump’s first term as U.S. president; since then, hawkishness toward Beijing has ramped up, especially within the GOP.

But the GOP hawks are divided, clashing over “what the end goal of U.S.-China competition should be, or whether the United States should even articulate one,” FP’s Lili Pike writes.

While some Republicans favor regime change in China, others would prefer to reach a sort of stalemate. All are jockeying for Trump’s ear. As he prepares to take office again, his “decision to favor one side or the other could have a significant impact on U.S.-China relations,” Pike writes.

3. The New Idea of India

 by Ravi Agrawal, April 8

Matthieu Bourel illustration for Foreign Policy

 In 1997,  Indian political scientist Sunil Khilnani argued in a book titled The Idea of India that the country’s identity was shaped by its commitment to secular democracy, as embodied by its first prime minister, Jarwaharlal Nehru. Nearly 30 years later, FP’s Ravi Agrawal proposes that Khilnani’s contention no longer holds up.

Under Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, “an illiberal, Hindi-dominated, and Hindu-first nation is emerging, and it is challenging—even eclipsing—other ideas of India, including Nehru’s,” Agrawal writes. For all his controversial policies, Modi wins big at the polls and is among the world’s most popular democratically elected leaders.

Together, “Modi and his [party] have succeeded in furthering an idea of India that makes a virtue of sacrificing Western liberalism for a homegrown sense of self-interest,” Agrawal writes.

4. Sweden Is Making the Most of NATO’s Waiting Room

by Jack Detsch, Feb. 4

After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Sweden—which had been geopolitically neutral for around 200 years—decided to apply for NATO membership. This March, the country finally joined the alliance, after Hungary and Turkey gave up long-running campaigns to block its entry.

One month before Sweden’s accession, Jack Detsch, a former staff writer at Foreign Policy, wrote a feature on how Sweden passed its time during the two-year impasse. “[T]he name of the game is deterrence,” Detsch wrote from a Swedish naval base. Things were anything but quiet: Russia had deployed submarines and allegedly test-fired missiles in the Baltic Sea.

“It all sounds pretty ominous,” Detsch wrote. “But the Swedes had to deal with the Russian threat long before the United States even existed.” Now, with NATO membership secured, Stockholm will no longer have to go it alone.

5. Salman Rushdie’s Next Act

by Salil Tripathi, Aug. 18

In August 2022, writer Salman Rushdie was attacked by a knife-wielding assassin at a literary event in upstate New York. Rushdie miraculously survived but lost one eye. This April, he published a book about the event and its aftermath, Knife.

Rushdie’s life has long been marked by threats against him; his 1988 book The Satanic Verses earned him a fatwa from Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and led him into many years of hiding. But Rushdie refused to give in. “He has challenged those with power … and been a persistent and outspoken champion of free speech,” Salil Tripathi writes in an essay marking Knife’s release. “Rushdie persists, and remains important, because of that spirit of defiance.”

Knife is as much a tale of death as it is of love, Tripathi suggests. Rushdie’s appreciation for his family and remaining time on Earth have swelled in the aftermath of the attack. “Rushdie has shown that courage leads to triumph, for it shows defiant will in the face of violence,” Tripathi writes.