Despite repeated American claims that Hezbollah is assisting Butcher Assad in Syria and preparing attacks abroad, the EU continues its refusal to mark the Lebanese group down as a terrorist organization. To defend their position, EU officials claim that because Hezbollah’s is a political party in addition to a militant group, it should not be […]

Itamar Rabinovich, former Ambassador of Israel to the United States and member of the American Interest‘s editorial board, is incredibly knowledgable and insightful on Middle Eastern history and politics. He recently wrote an astute article on the strategically important Sinai which is well worth your time. A key passage to keep in mind as you digest […]

WRM has written the lead piece in the latest issue of The American Interest, which broadly deals with the subject of race and class in America. Drawing on themes that regular readers of Via Meadia will recognize, the essay traces the long arc race relations have traveled since the founding of the country to today—four years […]

The world has been mesmerized by the revolutionary upsurge across the Arab Spring as longstanding dictatorships fell under popular pressure. But are the Arabs the only people in the Middle East to get a spring? Via Meadia was early to the story of rising tensions between Turkey and Syria, spurred on by a spate of […]

When the news broke that Fareed Zakaria was suspended from his columns at Time and CNN due to accusations of plagiarism, Via Meadia was surprised. Plagiarism is a serious transgression that should not to be taken lightly, but we found it hard to believe that someone with such a gift for writing would feel the need to […]

Two top-notch Chinese car companies are recalling 23,000 vehicles from Australia due to the presence of asbestos in the engines and exhaust gaskets—this, after explicitly stating that the cars would not contain the cancer-causing chemical.As Michael Dunne reports in the WSJ, this this may be an example of a “quality fade”: Prospective buyers initially receive impressive samples of goods, […]

Although American energy reserves have been rising steadily over the past few years and appear likely to continue to do so, American imports from Saudi Arabia have increased by 20 percent over the past year.In January, under pressure from the environmental lobby, the Obama administration blocked a permit for the planned Keystone oil pipeline (after […]

While WRM is away in India, we’ve been inviting a number of guest bloggers to add their two cents to the Via Meadia converstation. One of these guest bloggers is Chris Mead, WRM’s brother and Senior Vice President of the American Chamber of Commerce Executives. He has been dominating the media while his brother is away. A […]

We’ve repeatedly noted that the humanitarian intervention in Libya has had perverse consequences far beyond Libya’s borders—most pronouncedly in Mali. Mali’s unraveling in turn has dire consequences for its neighbors. A map is worth a thousand words:Niger is caught in a pincer between the Islamist Tuareg rebels to its north and west and the savage Boko […]

The AP reports that Algeria’s Lakhdar Brahimi will be replacing Kofi Annan as the UN’s peace envoy to Syria. Brahimi, who helped negotiate the end of Lebanon’s civil war, had been hesitant but finally accepted the post. He was said to be awaiting some kind of signal of support from the Security Council, which has […]