Is the nose of a Shiite camel trying to get under the Sunni tent in Saudi Arabia? Recent demonstrations in Qatif, a town in Saudi Arabia’s oil rich, predominantly Shiite eastern province, have highlighted growing resentment in the economically cozy but politically and religiously smouldering kingdom. Expect the royal family and their security forces to […]

As Mitt Romney is finding out to his dismay, Republicans have just as much of an appetite for green energy pork as do Democrats these days.When Romney recently voiced his opposition to a $5 billion tax credit for wind energy projects, a number of Republican senators from wind-energy producing states in the West and Midwest […]

This is not what OWS had in mind: Goldman Sachs is headed to Riker’s Island — to make a few bucks. New York City is about to try a cutting-edge approach to reducing recidivism rates among inmates at Riker’s Island prison. Goldman Sachs will invest $9.6 million in the initiative, which uses “social impact bonds,” […]

Lt. General Zahir ul-Islam, newly-appointed head of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence directorate, has been roaming around Washington, meeting with several American officials, including, most importantly, General David Petraeus, head of the CIA. The relationship between ISI and the CIA has become particularly badly frayed in recent months, so officials are hoping that General Islam’s ascent could […]

The evolving crisis over Iran’s nuclear program has led the governments of the United States, Israel and other regional states to draw “red lines” that have shifted with time. Unfortunately, these red lines may be self-defeating in that their constant shifting gravely corrodes the credibility of those who set them—that is, credibility not only in […]

Yesterday there were warnings that the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) was about to default on its prepaid pension obligations. And today, sure enough, the USPS announced that it could not meet today’s obligations, and also that it would not meet those pending six months hence. For loyal and long time readers of The American Interest, […]

It is becoming increasingly evident that public opinion in China is affecting the ability of officials to launch big projects by decree—a quality of the government’s autocratic system that Communist Party officials have long compared favorably against the inertia of India’s messy democracy.Over the past few years, ordinary citizens have stepped up pressure on local […]

Americans are saving more and spending about the same as before; this news has economists worried about the potential for a recovery: The personal saving rate, which measures savings as a percentage of disposable income, jumped to 4.4% in June from 4% a month earlier and a recent low of 3.2% in November, the government […]

Here’s an interesting fact: The Italian government employs 27,000 people to manage the small island’s wooded areas—more than Canada employs for British Columbia’s endless forests. This is only one item off a long list of government waste, corruption and nepotism in the Mediterranean described in this article by the German magazine Der Spiegel:  . . . […]

ProPublica and Foreign Policy just published a joint investigative report: “Before Deadly Bulgaria Bombing, Tracks of a Resurgent Iran-Hezbollah Threat.” This kind of candor is surely painful to the eyes and ears of EU bureaucrats, who continue to maintain that there is no “tangible evidence” that Hezbollah engages in terrorist activity.Alas for the Eurocrats and their delicate sense […]