By most accounts, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been the winner in the Ukraine crisis, at least so far. His annexation of Crimea, which Nikita...
More than 140,000 people are said to have died in Syria’s civil war. United Nations reports of atrocities, Internet images of attacks on civilians and...
Is the United States turning inward and becoming isolationist? That question was posed to me by a number of financial and political leaders at the recent...
This year marks the hundredth anniversary of a transformative event of modern history. World War I killed some 20 million people and ground up a generation of...
As the year comes to an end, it is only natural to ask what might lie ahead. But instead of asking what may lay ahead in 2014, let us jump to midcentury. What...
“Japan is back!” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared during a visit to Washington, D.C., earlier this year. But while Japan may be on the right track after two...
Until recently, cybersecurity has primarily interested computer geeks and cloak-and-dagger types. The Internet’s creators, part of a small, enclosed...
Ever since Edward J. Snowden disclosed the National Security Agency’s ongoing collection of massive amounts of electronic-communications data generated by...
When U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping met for their “shirt-sleeves summit” in California last month, North Korea was a major topic...
Some critics complain that U.S. President Barack Obama campaigned on inspirational rhetoric and an ambition to “bend the arc of history,” but then...
Many of the recent tributes for Margaret Thatcher following her death celebrated her as a “transformational” leader who brought about great changes. There...
Last month, the new president of China, Xi Jinping, chose to travel to Moscow for his first foreign visit. He and Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a...
This month marks the tenth anniversary of the controversial American-led invasion of Iraq. What has that decision wrought over the last decade? More...
What will the world look like two decades from now? Obviously, nobody knows, but some things are more likely than others. Companies and governments have to...
The United States is a nation of immigrants. Except for a small number of Native Americans, everyone is originally from somewhere else, and even recent...
This month marks the 50th anniversary of the Cuban missile crisis – those 13 days in October 1962 that were probably the closest the world has come to a...
Will war break out in the seas of East Asia? After Chinese and Japanese nationalists staged competing occupations of the barren landmasses that China refers...
Public-opinion polls in the United States indicate a close presidential election in November. While President Barack Obama outpolls the Republican challenger,...
When President Richard Nixon proclaimed in the early 1970s that he wanted to secure national energy independence, the United States imported a quarter of its...
When should states intervene militarily to stop atrocities in other countries? The question is an old and well-traveled one. Indeed, it is now visiting...
While the presidential primary elections in the United States are not over, Mitt Romney is now almost certain to be the party’s nominee to face...
Two years ago, a piece of faulty computer code infected Iran’s nuclear program and destroyed many of the centrifuges used to enrich uranium. Some...
The presidential campaign in the United States has been marked by calls from Barack Obama’s would-be Republican challengers for a radical transformation...
Would the world be more peaceful if women were in charge? A challenging new book by the Harvard University psychologist Steven Pinker says that the answer is...
A leadership transition is scheduled in two major autocracies in 2012. Neither is likely to be a surprise. Xi Jinping is set to replace Hu Jintao as president...