By now, many of you have probably heard of Jeremy Lin, the undrafted basketball phenom who has set records and electrified NBA crowds since debuting this month for the New York Knicks. What makes Lin so compelling to so many, beyond his athletic prowess, is his unique biography. He is the first American-born player of […]

Robert Zoellick, who has served as the World Bank’s president since George W. Bush appointed him in 2007, is leaving when his term expires in June. The United States  traditionally has the power to nominate replacements for the post, but that could be changing.Zoellick noted that his departure coincides with a tectonic shift in the […]

Sean Penn, it seems, has a grudge against Great Britain. He also doesn’t think highly of imperialism. The Hollywood star, two-time Oscar winner (and a great actor, in our opinion) for some reason has decided to wade into the political tussle over the Falklands. Here’s Penn in his own words: The world today is not […]

President Obama’s strategic “pivot” towards Asia and the Pacific Rim has led to perhaps the greatest foreign policy success of his administration to date. Over the course of one week, Obama solidified relationships with nations around China’s periphery while China, outmaneuvered, was forced to turn the other cheek. Since November China has remained generally courteous […]

Earlier this week I was in Washington, teaching a class and attending some events connected to the visit of China’s vice president.  It was an instructive time; in meetings with U.S. officials, with experts who follow China closely, and at the “state lunch” when Vice President Xi was the guest of honor at a State […]

Gallup has a very interesting poll out this week that charts Americans’ perceptions of foreign countries. The top three favorites? Canada, Australia, and Great Britain. The Anglosphere still rules the roost when it comes to Americans’ attitudes toward the world.Other results of this Gallup poll are worth noting. Israel comes in at 71 percent favorability, […]

The Himalayan glaciers aren’t melting, at least for the moment, says a recently study published in Nature. Between 2003 and 2010 the effective change in the size of glaciers in the high mountains of Asia was “not significantly different from zero,” said a British scientist not involved with the study, who added, “I believe this data is the most reliable […]

The Venerable Mead was born in Florence, South Carolina on this day in 1930.  Herbert Hoover was in the White House, economic recovery was “just around the corner”, and some of his father’s medical patients still payed their bills by leaving sacks of pecans and other local products on the back porch. After a long […]

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is the darling of aid NGOs, the Iron Lady of Liberia, an “uncompromising woman” and a champion fighter of corruption. So the recent appointment of her son as chief of the national oil company shouldn’t cause concern, right? Sirleaf is above nepotism. The development NGOs are behind her, and they know best.To be […]

In case you missed it earlier this week, AI Chairman Francis Fukuyama has built a drone and has documented the process on his blog. Here’s his take on why he did it: It is extremely easy to build a drone now that can do not just surveillance but can carry rather large payloads . . . I […]