Election Maneuvers
Marco Rubio Goes to Bat for Higher Ed Reform

Marco Rubio has been pushing a series of higher-ed reforms as the 2016 buzz begins to build. Could this become a hot issue in the campaign?

The Man Who Would Be King
U.S. Kisses an Indian Toad

In a major shift for U.S. policy toward India, the American Ambassador will meet Narendra Modi, the controversial Indian politician who is the current favorite for Prime Minister in this year’s elections. Seems like the State Department is considering “Prime Minister Modi” a real possibility.

ACA Fail Fractal
Obama’s Amorphous Blob of a Health Care Law

If Obamacare is not settled law, but continually in the process of being settled, it will become harder for the law’s proponents to treat any attempts to change it as affronts to some untouchable consensus.

A European Game of Thrones?
Hungary, Ukraine & Putin’s Invisible Curtain

While U.S. and EU diplomats quarrel over niceties in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin is surreptitiously gaining hold on countries ever farther west. A deal approved in Hungary’s parliament last week makes it quite clear that Putin wishes to drape an invisible curtain across the European continent, imposing energy and economic dependence on those countries that fall under it. How western leaders respond to his challenge will be an important gut check.

Sun Burn
U.S. Takes India to Task over Solar Protectionism

Yesterday, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman announced that America would be challenging India’s protectionist solar energy trade policies. It’s hard to play nice when it comes to solar energy.

Erdogan's Unraveling
Porn-Watching Jews Threaten Turkey

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan identified the latest conspirators that are out to sabotage his government: pornographers. The pro-government newspaper accused ‘porn lobby’ of instigating the violent protests in the wake of a new law that aims to control content on the internet.

Europe Clashes Over Immigration
Switzerland’s Primal Scream

In voting to restrict immigration, the Swiss joined a larger, Europe-wide trend of national electorates rejecting the EU, rebelling against the political establishment, and asserting their mastery over their own national fate. EU member states can’t hold similar referenda on the free movement of peoples within the Eurozone, of course. But what if they could?

Contextualizing China's Rise
Relax: China Is Not Prewar Germany

It has been in vogue lately to compare China’s rise and its relations with other world powers to the relationships between Germany and Great Britain in the years preceding The Great War. Others counter with rival historical analogies. But debating specifics of these comparisons risks losing sight of a broader point about great power politics.

An Untimely Farewell
West Village Local

What the eulogies got wrong about Philip Seymour Hoffman.

libya afterparty: still going strong
Niger to France and US: Finish the Job!

Niger’s Interior Minister called on France and the United States to re-intervene in Libya to fight jihadist groups. The West, he went on, needs “to provide an after-sales service” to the countries in the region who are still dealing with the Libya afterparty. Not surprisingly, the French Foreign Minister’s response was: absolutely not.

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