In a surprising turn of events, an old piece I wrote in 2004 for Foreign Policy on “America’s Sticky Power” became the most popular item on FP’s website on Tuesday. Economic, or sticky, power is different from both sharp and soft power — it is based neither on military compulsion nor on simple coincidence of […]

Parent-teacher relations in America are beginning to look a lot like the time-honored playground game Red Rover. Teachers’ unions link arms to form a defense against, say,  charter schools; the parents, sometimes with a little help from legislatures or the courts, easily break through.The same story played out again last week, when an Indiana court […]

Pakistan’s Supreme Court has charged Prime Minister Gilani with contempt of court. Gilani offered to resign on Monday, and will testify Thursday. The charges stem from his refusal to reopen a corruption case against President Zardari.Via Meadia thought something like this could be coming: the Supreme Court, propelled by the Army, which seeks to exercise […]

Imagine a world in which President Obama, Mitt Romney and Pat Buchanan were all running in the presidential election and Buchanan was polling just one or two percentage points behind the other contenders. Is this likely to happen in America? No. But it is happening right now in France. An article in the NYT indicates […]

Look east young shopper: China’s many malls are wide-aisled, well stocked and inexpensive. Oh, and they’re deserted. The FT reports: As crowds shouted and pushed for the latest iPhone in Beijing on Friday, a glitzy mall across the street was bathed in silence, with just a handful of shoppers hunting for bargains.[The] empty SOHO complex […]

I have been reading Terrence Deacon’s The Symbolic Species at the recommendation of David Sloan Wilson, who has been one of the leading proponents of group selection (or more properly, multi-level selection) in evolutionary theory over the last few years.  (These are people who took issue with the views of Richard Dawkins and many older […]

Politics rarely sees such odd bedfellows as the friendship between Shiite Iran and the staunchly Sunni Hamas.  Hamas, which traces its roots back to the Muslim Brotherhood, was dependent on the Alawi-dominated Syrian regime for political protection and, at a time when few Sunni backers were interested, was eager to take Iranian money, presumably praying […]

Good news out of Texas for those who–like Via Meadia–hope to see fracking develop into a safe and effective component in our national energy toolbox: transparency is on the way. Reports the Times: Starting Feb. 1, drilling operators in Texas will have to report many of the chemicals used in the process known as hydraulic […]

The world is full of bachelors but associates are harder to find. Texas recognizes the problem and is working to get it students to work learning job-related skills at two-year community colleges. It’s about time. According to the NYT, “the state’s population of skilled laborers is aging and approaching retirement, and there are a dearth […]

War can cause young soldiers to dehumanize their opponents? The pressures of combat may erode moral sensibilities? Who would have thunk it? Apparently not the ace reporters chasing the Afghan ‘pee-gate’ story at the New York Times–so they spoke to experts who kindly explained the obvious: Reprehensible behavior, combat veterans and military experts say, is […]