Iran is raising the stakes in the Syrian conflict. The Wall Street Journal: Iran is sending commanders from its elite Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and hundreds of foot soldiers to Syria, according to current and former members of the corps.The personnel moves come on top of what these people say are Tehran’s stepped-up efforts to […]

Consumers say they have little hope that the economy will improve, and businesses now appear to share the sentiment. The Financial Times reports that orders for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft were down this past July for the fourth time in five months.This is a key sign that businesses are preparing for tough times ahead. In particular, firms are […]

Today we celebrate one of the world’s least notable anniversaries: the 84th year since the signing of the Kellogg-Briand Pact, which outlawed war for the better part of the past century and won its authors the Nobel Peace Prize. This immodest treaty aimed at nothing less than permanent elimination of war as an instrument of national policy and […]

For the past few weeks while WRM has been traveling in India, The American Interest‘s Adam Garfinkle has been pitching in essays to keep Via Meadia going. With the big boss back, Adam has returned to writing at his own blog on AI, “The Middle East and Beyond“. One of the “Beyond” subjects he sometimes returns […]

On Saturday, 39 were killed and more were injured in an explosion at Venezuela’s Paraguaná Refinery, one of the largest in the world. This is only the latest in a string of accidents that the state owned oil company, Pétroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), has racked up in past years. The New York Times reports that—once again—faulty state supervision of the […]

While the rest of the world obsesses over the fate of Pussy Riot, in the more distant corners of Russia a far more significant phenomenon is underway: the spread of radical Islam. The New York Times reports that, since the beginning of Ramadan, the normally peaceful city of Kazan in central Russia has been hit […]

When this blog was formed (or re-formed) some months ago, part of its name included “Jewcentricity” for a reason. For those who may not know, this is the title of a book I wrote in 2009.  There will be no second edition of the book, because the first edition attracted not a single major review […]

Who is Mitt Romney? It’s a question Via Meadia has been pondering for some time, and it appears we’re not alone. An editorial in The Economist does a good job explaining why Romney needs to let voters in on who he is and what he really believes: But competence is worthless without direction and, frankly, character. Would […]

Iran may be something of a pariah at the moment in western circles, but that hasn’t precluded the Islamic Republic from hosting this year’s international conference of the Non-Aligned Movement.The New York Times reports that Iran is making the most of this get-together, which will include appearances by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, a 250-man […]

An unpleasant story in today’s Wall Street Journal shows us that among the many side effects of the Libya adventure has been not just instability among Libya’s neighbors but also a certain kind of lawlessness within Libya itself. In Libya, it’s not the kind of sectarian violence that periodically convulses Iraq, pitting the country’s security […]