obama's gamble

Is It Worth It? Stephen Biddle
Yes, but it's a close call bound to cause the President trouble.

War Games Mark T. Kimmitt
Afghanistan is not Iraq, but the basics don't change.

A Letter from Bagram Todd Greentree
A dispatch from a still-imbalanced front.

on war

Blood Brothers Stephen Peter Rosen
Americans believe they are a peace-loving people; the historical record shows otherwise.

War and Human Nature Steven A. LeBlanc
What science tells us about the causes of wars, and why we don't like to hear it.

Vacuum Wars Jakub Grygiel
Failed states cause more than just humanitarian problems and terrorism; they're potential flashpoints for great power wars as well.

the crisis

MBAs Gone Wild Rakesh Khurana
Business schools helped cause our financial woes. Here's how they can help alleviate them.

Taking the Measure Ryan Streeter
GDP, CPI, poverty rate: Economic gauges don't measure what we think they do.

nation-building in america

The Imminent Death of the U.S. Postal Service Georg Jensen
The USPS is running out of time and money.

The Innovation State William Bonvillian
Federal support for science is essential for American prosperity.

Women's Work Neil Gilbert
How to create real choices for women and their families in modern times.

reviews

In the Family Way Dorothea Israel Wolfson
Some old, inconvenient truths about marriage.

Refuse It Sven Birkerts
In the Google era, what do privacy, solitude and "I" really mean?

Best of Times, Worst of Times Theodore Dalrymple
How Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller confronted an age of optimism.

Like a Bullet in the Side Caitrin Nicol
The first full-dress biography of Flannery O'Connor plumbs her mysteries.

The Essential Italian Michael McDonald
Il Divo captures Giulio Andreotti the tarnished icon, but not the man.

notes & letters

The Next Darfur Yannick Demoustier
Reporting from the site of a mass murder.

How Not To Solve Guantánamo Gregory Johnsen
Saudi terrorist "rehabilitation" programs won't work on Yemenis either.

Born-Again Modernity Peter Berger
Evangelicals are neither theocratic nor fundamentalist nor anti-modern.

web exclusive

The Strange Case of Florence Hartmann Ruth Wedgwood
A tribunal in the Hague for the prosecution of war crimes in the former Yugoslavia is threatening to convict a former French journalist for accurately describing two of its boggled judicial decisions.  This is not the best way to advance the cause of international justice.