About half of U.S. adults say the country’s mission in Afghanistan has mostly failed in achieving its goals, while about a third say it has mostly succeeded.
The number of people living in sub-Saharan Africa who were forced to leave their homes due to conflict reached a new high of 18.4 million in 2017, up sharply from 14.1 million in 2016 – the largest regional increase of forcibly displaced people in the world.
The U.S. has taken in 3 million of the more than 4 million refugees resettled worldwide since 1980. But in 2017, the U.S. resettled 33,000 refugees, the country’s lowest total since the years following 9/11.
Nearly 13 million Syrians are displaced after seven years of conflict in their country. No nation in recent decades has had such a large percentage of its population displaced.
A median of 53% in five Middle Eastern and North African countries also see Iran playing a more important role, but fewer say Israel, Saudi Arabia and Egypt have gained influence.
Seventy years since the partition of India, read about attitudes in India on a range of subjects, including Pakistan and the handling of the Kashmir dispute.
Since the end of World War II, there have been 225 successful coups (counting the events in Zimbabwe) in countries with populations greater than 500,000, according to the Center for Systemic Peace, which maintains extensive datasets on various forms of armed conflict and political violence. Most coups occurred during the height of the Cold War, from the 1960s through the 1980s.