Catalan, Venetian, and Tyrolean independence movements find inspiration in Scotland.

A plan to break California up into six smaller states didn’t collect enough valid signatures to force itself onto a ballot. But California remains too big to function effectively, and some kind of decentralization is necessary.

The Muslim Brotherhood appears to have been kicked out of Qatar, perhaps due to pressure from the Saudis, Egypt and UAE. And reports indicate that the MB may be headed to Turkey.

For the Western political observer, Russia judged by common metrics always seems on the verge of being a spent force. As Joseph Conrad reminds us, Russia never seems to vanish from the map, and remains a font of imperialism and war.

President Obama’s critics seem to be getting under his skin with their criticisms. But it appears the President doesn’t fully grasp the substance of his critics’ complaints about his leadership.

The cultural abdication of adulthood that A.O. Scott describes in this week’s New York Times Magazine is real. We risk leaving to our children the impossible task of loving a world that we don’t respect enough to love ourselves.

A Department of Defense program is giving military surplus, including grenade launchers, to campus police forces. The militarization of America continues to reach new heights.

The U.S. shale boom has depressed global oil prices, which has in turn threatened petro-state regimes that rely on high crude prices to stay solvent.

Water scarcity is a real and pernicious threat, but industries are hard at work finding new ways to save wasted water and, in the process, save money.

What both conservatives and liberals are missing in the fight over the new AP U.S. History standards.