It’s not the eco-nomy, stupid! That is the biggest takeaway from the recent presidential election in America. If anything, it was really about identity. As Barack Obama was not of the right colour, his opponents felt that his elevation in 2008 was because they had not stressed identity enough. They would have dearly liked to peel his skin off, […]
As we have pointed out previously, in the principal divided-country scenarios of the second half of the 20th century — North and South Vietnam, East and West Germany, North and South Yemen — reunification was thought of for decades as only a remote possibility, before it suddenly occurred in a tumultuous, fast-moving fashion, in a way few of […]
Two weeks ago, General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, delivered the Landon Lecture to hundreds of U.S. servicemembers and students at Kansas State University. During the question and answer session, a cadet in the Air Force ROTC asked, “What [do] you see being the focus of our nation in 5 to 10 years, […]
“Potemkin villages,” I scribble onto a scrap of paper for the interpreter, Mr. Kim. “What does that mean?” he asks. “It means that you are just showing us facades here to feign growth and progress, just as the Russian Prince Potemkin once did,” I reply. “You should google it. “That, though, is not an option […]
Four years ago John McCain was campaigning on his foreign-policy experience when along came a financial crisis that killed his chances. This time around Mitt Romney has been campaigning on his economic experience. Now along comes a foreign-policy crisis. Will it kill his chances, too? Or can the Republicans finally land a punch on President […]
The wave of violent, senseless and deadly assaults on US legations in the region in recent days elicits a deep sense of disappointment, even despair. A decade of attempts by a series of American administrations and a handful of Western countries to combat Islamic extremism and to promote democracy in the region appears to have […]
Any possible US military action in the Gulf would not be supported by American voters as they look for a diplomatic solution to the crisis, according to this year’s edition of Foreign Policy in the New Millennium, a wide-ranging survey of American public opinion conducted by the non-partisan Chicago Council on Global Affairs, writes Francis […]
looking beyond borders 