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Walter Russell Mead
Angry Immigrants Riot in…Sweden? One of Europe’s most tolerant, immigrant-friendly countries is facing three nights of Paris-style riots from angry immigrants. The riots, which started when police gunned down ... A Bad Week for Public Morality A new Gallup poll shows that 72 percent of Americans think morals as a whole are getting worse in the country; 44 percent said the ... Chinese IP Theft Hits US University Three Chinese nationals have been accused of accepting bribes from China to disclose private research in magnetic resonance imaging that was being funded by the ... Sex Scandal Suppressed by Blue Machine in New York Hypocrisy is the name of the game in New York’s State Assembly, and the New York Times has finally taken notice. State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, the ... Obama and Elizabeth Warren Feed the College Beast College students may see their debt rise sharply overnight, as the interest rate for Stafford Loans is set to double to 6.8 percent on July ... Surprise! Another California Green Policy Flop California’s “Hydrogen Highway” is a road to nowhere. About a decade ago, then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger called for the state to invest more than $50 million ...
Syria How to Make the "Red Line" Mean Something Syria's use of chemical weapons violates fundamental international norms and sets dangerous precedents. To ignore it, or to try to smooth it over through futile diplomatic efforts, is unacceptable.
 
Armed Forces Decline at Sea is a Political Choice Sequestration and other budget cuts will further reduce the U.S. Navy's fleets, combat preparedness and global presence. This slow retreat toward home waters is antithetical to national policy and may eventually prove dangerous.
 
Russia A Response to the Critics How a strategic dialogue with Russia could cut through the stereotypical thinking on all sides, and other closing thoughts on The American Interest's debate on U.S. policy on Russia.
 
The North Caucasus A Patchwork Puzzle Boston focused our minds on the security challenges posed by the situation in the North Caucasus. Too bad people still use events from over twenty years ago to understand a region that's far too complicated for simple generalizations.
 
Libya Benghazigate: Missing the Point The real lesson we should draw from the murder of a U.S. Ambassador and several other Americans in Benghazi last year is that the Libya war was a completely predictable and avoidable mistake. Why aren’t Republicans making this argument? Why can’t they connect these obvious dots? Because they are in the main cheap hawks.
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Ahead of the Curve
Editors' Choices from Previous Issues
July/August 2009 The Essential Italian Giulio Andreotti, who served as Prime Minister of Italy seven times, is dead at 94. The inscrutable Andreotti must bedevil any would-be obituary writer, but one young filmmaker came close to capturing the essence of the man in a 2008 film, Il Divo. With flamboyant, almost surrealistic style, the film is also a searing portrait of Italian politics.
 
March/April 2008 Bombs Away In his State of the Union Address, President Obama pledged to "continue leading the global effort to secure nuclear materials that could fall into the wrong hands." Stopping proliferation has become vastly more difficult over the years, but strategic interdiction is perhaps the most powerful—and underutilized—tool at his disposal.
Featured Reviews
Books, Film, Music & Other Cultural Artifacts
Books The Apple Pie of Booze Bourbon is the spirit America makes better than anyone—its distinctive flavor comes from our native corn, water and oak barrels. It's patriotism in a glass. But its rise as the all-American spirit was by no means assured. A motley assortment of distillers, hucksters, politicians and partisan drunks paved the way to the hard stuff we enjoy today.
Books The Boy From Bombay Salman Rushdie's memoir Joseph Anton recounts the aftermath of Satanic Verses and the fatwa that targeted him for death. Years of isolation and anxiety brought a deep appreciation of western freedoms, and of the forces that threaten it from within.
Film Dancer in the Dark Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty takes us into the shadows of the decade-long manhunt for Osama bin Laden. The film is less about the enemy and more about America's stubborn determination to drag him into the light.
Books The Achilles Heel within the Boot Bill Emmott’s Good Italy, Bad Italy spins an anecdotal narrative of Italy’s recent history from the early 1990s Mani Pulite scandals to the ongoing euro crisis, successfully carrying readers up to the decision the country faces about its future. Wisely, Emmott avoids predicting which path Italy will choose.
Television Why Republicans Should Watch More TV With their party in disarray, Republican politicians and strategists should put down the poll results and data sets and turn on the television for a change. What they find may provide a better picture of social reality—and the electorate they've so long failed to win over.