Thus far, the defining moment for the Obama Administration’s energy policy has been his rejection of the Keystone Pipeline, which would have brought oil from Canadian tar sands to refineries in the United States. In our view, this was a massive blunder that needlessly decreased U.S. access to much-needed energy during a time of rising […]

Add to our continuing coverage of the Chen Guangcheng saga this update:A spokesman from China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement today: Chen Guangcheng is currently being treated in hospital. As a Chinese citizen, if he wants to study abroad he can go through the normal channels to the relevant departments and complete the […]

Unknown, un-uniformed assailants attacked unarmed protesters outside Cairo’s Ministry of Defense on Wednesday. Eleven people were killed and more than a hundred wounded before police units arrived. In response to the Interior Ministry’s inability to send forces to the scene in a timely fashion, several presidential candidates halted their campaigns, their parties boycotted meetings with […]

Via Meadia has occasionally poked fun at the dubious value of much academic scholarship, as well as the ridiculous cost of accessing articles in traditional academic journals. Subscriptions to some of these journals can cost tens of thousands of dollars, and a significant portion of many college library budgets are spent on securing access to mountains of frequently […]

The disappointing payroll numbers (115,000 new jobs were reported created last month, significantly below estimates) are not the big story in the labor statistics released this morning. The big story, and the bad news, is the continued shrinkage of the workforce.Half a million Americans checked out of the economy last month: they stopped looking for […]

The Struggle for Egypt: From Nasser to Tahrir Square by Steven A. Cook Oxford University Press, 2011, 424 pp., $27.95 Adam Garfinkle: Your new book on Egypt certainly is timely, but we both know that the lead-time to produce a book of this kind, one with history, with real substantive analysis, is quite long. I […]

This is another update to Via Meadia’s China coverage, which has stepped up following the extraordinary stories of Bo Xilai and Chen Guangcheng.It seemed to us here that Chen might have changed his tone after receiving some unpleasant visits from some of China’s more dangerous police bureaus.The Washington Post has confirmed our suspicions: The Chen deal, […]

As we noted in an essay this morning, modernizers within China’s elite are open to economic liberalization. The Chen Guangcheng case has consumed media attention, but American officials have been quietly working with their Chinese counterparts on a range of economic issues. And according to the Wall Street Journal, the Chinese have been unusually willing to […]

European leaders are watching the French election with bated breath, anticipating a possible new regime under socialist François Hollande. The outcome could determine the future of Europe’s austerity measures and reshape the Franco-German relationship. If this relationship falls apart, Europe will find it more difficult to make decisions, and the Euro crisis could get even […]

The insidious Israel Lobby has struck again. It somehow managed to infiltrate the United Methodist Church and convince the Methodists, by an overwhelming 2-to-1 margin, to vote against ending investments in companies involved in Israel’s enforcement of its control of the occupied territories. According to the New York Times, the Methodists’ decision follows similar repudiations […]