What will happen in 2018? Take my quiz
UNPREDICTABILITY IS THE hallmark of the new world disorder. No year in living memory as astonishing as 2017. When it began, few could have imagined that the United States would trash its alliance with Europe, support a savage bombing campaign in Yemen, re-ignite conflicts with Cuba and Iran, and cozy up to brutes like those ruling […]
The State Department’s naughty lists
MOST OF US carry lists in our heads. They help us deal with the world. We have mental lists of people we like or dislike, foods we enjoy or avoid, and politicians we admire or detest. This is a useful impulse for individuals, but it is dangerous for nations. Over the last few decades, the United […]
NATO is headed for a very messy break-up
IF YOU’RE AN American citizen, cancel plans for that vacation in Turkey. Don’t invite your Turkish friends to the United States, either. Recently Turkey and the United States stopped issuing visas to each other’s citizens. This is more than just another travel ban. It is a geopolitical spectacle unique in modern history: two allied countries blocking […]
How to end the endless war
WARS THAT the United States is waging around the world undermine our security by turning entire populations against us and diverting our attention and resources away from urgent needs at home. No, the opposite is true: the United States faces serious threats, and can only protect itself by confronting them wherever they emerge. This debate has […]
Breaking up is hard to do
LET MY people go! For millennia this has been one of humanity’s most stirring cries. People want to rule themselves, not be ruled by others. Their patriotic ardor gives independence struggles an air of nobility. In recent weeks, breakaway movements in Kurdistan and Catalonia have moved closer to confrontation. Nationalists in both places want to break […]
