The successful hit against Ayman al-Zawahri was an impressive show of the effectiveness of U.S. counterterrorism efforts and an important demonstration that despite not having troops on the ground in Afghanistan, the United States retains a potent capacity to deliver effective counterterrorism punches. In light of this development, Vanda Felbab-Brown assesses the terrorism and counterterrorism picture in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover.

In its transition to clean energy, the United States needs to find ways to support 1.7 million people who currently work in the fossil fuel sector in the country. Michaël Aklin and Johannes Urpelainen explain how just transition initiatives are helping and argue that the federal government has an important role to play in completing an orderly phaseout of the fossil fuel industry without leaving workers stranded.