Rwanda and the dangers of democracy
Next month one of the world’s most remarkable leaders, President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, will be overwhelmingly re-elected to a third seven-year term. Kagame runs an authoritarian state and does not tolerate serious opposition. That is not, however, the main reason he can count on such an overwhelming victory. He is being rewarded for turning […]
My friend faces three life sentences in Turkey
Recently I received a bizarre invitation. A bureaucrat in Istanbul asked me to help the Turkish government celebrate its commitment to democracy. I was invited to be one of about 30 journalists who will contribute articles to a special magazine that is to be distributed in Istanbul and six foreign cities on July 15. Each article […]
Why we need four years of Trump
OUTRAGE AT President Trump’s behavior and policies is already leading to speculation over whether he will manage to complete his term of office. Speculation over how he might fall is a favorite after-dinner topic. Impeachment, criminal conviction, removal by the Cabinet, resignation, secret coup by deep state intelligence officers — all figure in the guessing game. […]
Saudi Arabia is destabilizing the world
JUST A FEW months ago, the governor of Indonesia’s largest city, Jakarta, seemed headed for easy re-election despite the fact that he is a Christian in a mostly Muslim country. Suddenly everything went violently wrong. Using the pretext of an offhand remark the governor made about the Koran, masses of enraged Muslims took to the streets […]
My Foreign Policy Mixtape
THIS SPRING BRINGS exciting news for those of us who study America’s role in the world: U2 is on tour. I like the band’s music reasonably well, but that’s not why this tour grabs me. U2 is named after an American spy plane that was at the center of a major Cold War confrontation. That means […]
