U.S. officials are calling it a “minesweeping exercise” and saying it’s “not in response to any particular threat or any specific situation,” but some in Tehran might think otherwise. AFP reports: Naval forces from more than 30 countries were on Monday engaged in a massive minesweeping exercise in the Gulf, US officials said, amid Iranian […]

Turkey’s Kurdish problem is once again rearing its most unwelcome head, the FT reports: The [Turkish] general staff said late on Thursday it had deployed seven battalions – 5,000 troops – to Semdinli, a remote south-eastern area where Turkish authorities announced just a month ago they had successfully concluded a smaller military deployment.The offensive follows […]

For years, MBAs have ruled the roost as the most popular graduate degree in America. In 2010, CBS estimated that MBAs accounted for 22 percent of all master’s degrees for men, and 11 percent for women. But now, as with law degrees, the massive commitment of time and resources these degrees entail is scaring away prospective students.Business […]

The New York Times ran an article this morning that echoes the title of Samuel Huntington’s seminal book, The Clash of Civilizations. “Cultural Clash Fuels Muslims Raging at Film“. The article is really worth reading in full. Some interesting excerpts: When the protests against an American-made online video mocking the Prophet Muhammad exploded in about 20 […]

Here’s some more bad news for the economy: analysts are predicting that corporate profits may fall this quarter for the first time in three years. This comes as a bit of a surprise. Business hasn’t quite been booming, but most of the economic news over the past few weeks has been good—or has at least shown […]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared on two different Sunday talk shows  over the weekend in a direct appeal to the American public for “red lines”—moments in Iran’s quest for a nuclear weapon that would trigger an armed U.S. response. Netanyahu’s offensive comes after the White House refused him a private meeting on Iran with […]

The polls still look good, but the news for the Obama campaign keeps getting worse. Despite appearing to be close to a resolution only a few days ago, the Chicago teacher strike escalated yesterday and is now pushing into its second week.Though a compromise deal appeared imminent over the weekend, Karen Lewis, the union president, said […]

It is easy to assume that the future shape of the American health care system will be settled one way or the other by the November election. But in turns out that whatever happens in the election, and subsequently to Mr. Obama’s signature health reform, we will still be far from resolving some basic challenges […]

The unrest across the Muslim world, ostensibly in reaction to a tasteless video defaming Islam, which led to the tragic death of Ambassador Christopher Stevens in Libya, dominated news coverage this week. Via Meadia’s two essays tried to grapple with what it all means.For Obama, his foreign policy choices are looking more and more like […]

A reader writes in response to our post on the sentencing to death in absentia of Iraq’s fugitive Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi: Your post Sunday, Sept. 9th, reminded me that Obama & his administration should have negotiated much more intensely to keep a substantial force in Iraq after the deadline that Bush had agreed to. Instead, Obama […]