[Yesterday saw the beginning of The American Interest’s commemoration of the Civil War sesquicentennial over at The Long Recall. I will be following the Civil War era news day by day on our new aggregator, and from time to time will play Civil War pundit:  writing political commentary on the events of the day as […]

One hundred fifty years ago the election returns led the morning news: Abraham Lincoln gained enough electoral votes against a split Democratic opposition to elect him the 16th President of the United States.  His election would set off first a secession crisis, as South Carolina almost immediately began preparations to secede from the Union, and […]

No president in my lifetime has fallen from heaven to earth as rapidly as President Obama.  Others have lost popularity and lost control of Congress, but none fell from such a height.  Who can forget the rapturous cries of joy when he was elected in 2008?  Who can forget all those predictions of a ‘transformational […]

I don’t know what occurs to the average newspaper reader if one observes that 2010 marks a centennial. Whatever happened in 1910? Some international incident anticipating World War I? A revolution in China? As I’ve just discovered, the first congress of German sociologists? Hardly. But among Evangelicals the centenary significance is clear: A hundred years […]

The midterm elections find the two parties, and the United States, in an uncomfortable position.  Even as it apparently moves toward a major victory, the Republican Party is divided between the Tea Party and the Establishment wings, and it is still haunted by the failure of the last era of Republican rule.  The Democrats, who […]

For all the grand speeches, President Obama has little of substance to show on the foreign policy front.

Kenneth Minogue shows how democracy can undermine liberty.

Paul A. Rahe brings Montesquieu back to life.

The International Committee of the Red Cross and its American counterpart face a changing international landscape.

Relations with Ukraine need not involve a zero-sum game between the United States and Russia.