What historical trends inform ISIS’s pursuit of a caliphate? And what do they mean for the future of Islamism?

When modern Muslims invoke the Khilāfa, the Caliphate as their ideal of governance for the Ummah, the planetary community of all Muslims, and indeed for all humans once converted or killed if stubbornly pagan, they do not refer to the famous caliphates of history from the splendiferous Umayyad, to the longer-lasting Abbasid extinguished by the Mongols in 1258, the Egypt-based and tolerant Fatimid in between, or the Ottoman that lingered till 1924, let alone the extant Ahmadiyya Caliphate that most condemn as heretical.

Edward Luttwak explains how Chinese history should color our perceptions of that nation’s modern ambitions.

Edward Luttwak examines the unusual dynamics of US-Russian relations and how they could change in the future.