We’ll always be the foreigners
EVEN THOUGH THE United States has plenty of good ideas about how to run countries, many countries don’t adopt them. This frustrates Americans. We have learned a difficult truth that makes modern wars so difficult to win: Many people don’t like to side with foreigners, no matter how good their ideas may be. The main reason […]
Iran’s Favorite Midwesterner
How the long-forgotten story of a minister’s son from Nebraska could remind Tehran and Washington of a common heritage. A few weeks ago I led two dozen Americans on a pilgrimage to the Iranian city of Tabriz, where we visited the grave of the only American who gave his life for the cause of democracy […]
Iran deal is a step toward re-imagining the Middle East
Pieces on the global chessboard are not nailed permanently into place. With Iran, as recently with Cuba, President Obama has proven that world leaders can move the pieces when it is in their interest. This will be his greatest foreign policy legacy. The newly announced accord between Iran and six outside powers deals only with the […]
On Turkey’s border, chaos looms
LIVING NEXT TO a country consumed in conflict is never easy. Turkey is making the best of it. As civil war in neighboring Syria drags through its fourth year, however, Turkey is being sucked in. People I met a few weeks ago in the thriving Turkish city of Gaziantep, near the Syrian border, are nervous and […]
Take a trip abroad, see the US in decline
FOREIGN TRAVEL is broadening, but not always in a positive way. For Americans it has an increasingly painful edge. Too often it leaves us with a disconcerting sense that our country is falling behind. In a world where competition comes increasingly from other countries, this bodes ill for our national future. Last month I visited four […]
