The kingmaker club

The kingmaker club

  VIOLENTLY INTERVENING IN the affairs of other countries has brought the United States much grief over the last century. We are hardly the only ones who do it. The club of interventionist nations has a shifting membership. During the current round of Middle East conflict, two new countries have joined: Turkey and Saudi Arabia. […]

Dangerous Dynasties

Dangerous Dynasties

POLITICAL DYNASTIES HAVE a romantic appeal, but not to most people who live under them. They are inherently unstable. The iron regimes of Reza Shah in Iran and “Papa Doc” Duvalier in Haiti collapsed when sons proved unable to handle their inheritance. In some countries, like Egypt and Yemen, entire populations rose in rebellion when presidents […]

Don’t blame the masses

Don’t blame the masses

WHETHER OR NOT the world is in an unusually bad state these days, it certainly seems so. Even Americans, famous for our lack of interest in world affairs, now closely follow news from far away. Much of it is frightening. Terror attacks are claiming innocent lives around the world. Syria is being torn apart. China and […]

How to Play Nice With an Angry Erdogan

How to Play Nice With an Angry Erdogan

The sweeping purges and mass arrests since last month’s failed military coup in Turkey have confirmed many of the worst fears about President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government. They are the most recent in a long history of abuses. Over the last few years, Mr. Erdogan has harshly repressed the Turkish press and civil society, supported […]

The cost of short-sighted missionary zeal in Sudan

The cost of short-sighted missionary zeal in Sudan

FIVE YEARS AGO, pushed by an odd coalition of movie stars and conservative Christians, the United States midwifed the birth of a new African nation, South Sudan. Senior American leaders attended the glittering independence celebration. This was supposed to be a liberation or a human rights project or a return to godliness. Only a few […]