In the cover article for Foreign Policy, which hits stands today, I discuss the intellectual and cultural traditions (based on the four schools I wrote about in Special Providence) which form the basis of Obama’s foreign policy, and the global and domestic challenges that he faces in the context of these traditions. Read it here.

Back in the beginning of the Christmas season, I wrote about the way the gospel Christmas narratives “roll the credits” by giving genealogical tables that link Jesus to Jewish history.  In contemplating Christmas, we should never forget that the first Christmas was first and foremost a Jewish event.  Mary, Joseph, the innkeeper, the shepherds, the […]

Greetings once again from sunny Belize.  Although I am blogging from a lovely beachside cabana with tropical breezes gently keeping the heat (and the insects) at bay as I lazily contemplate the snorkeling expedition we have planned for the afternoon, this point in the new year always reminds me of a fresh snowfall covering the […]

To those of you out there nursing your hangovers, Merry Christmas!  While most of American society considers today to be the last full day of the holiday season, the traditional Christmas won’t end until January 6.For some people Christmas hasn’t even started yet.  In some of the Eastern Orthodox churches, the twelve days of Christmas […]

A year ago, with the election of Barack Obama, it seemed to many that America and its role in the world might be transformed. A powerful post-ethnic, post-Cold War coalition had been created by a man who seemed able not only to transcend cultural differences and economic barriers, but also to exert American leadership in […]

Meet Louis Bromfield, godfather of the organic farming movement.

Kenya, two years after the bleeding.

Two films show the fight in Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson.

Here is the recurring problematic of U.S. policy toward North Korea: Policy starts out principled and long-term, with a clarion call for irreversible denuclearization, the promise of a transformed relationship with Pyongyang and the requisite assurances of close coordination with allies. Invariably, this policy ends up becoming incremental, tactical and reactive, as sterile debates over […]

A veteran Peace Corps hand volunteers to help, again.