The fighting in Kobani and continued advance of ISIS on the Turkish border has spurred Turkey’s President and PM to suggest they would be willing to commit ground troops.

Apache helicopters based in Baghdad have carried out strikes in Iraq. This not only increases the risk of American pilots being shot down, but stretches the meaning of the President’s pledge against combat troops.

The failures of handling Ebola in Dallas, small and large, point to the fact that 13 years after 9/11 we are still woefully unprepared for a biowarfare attack.

Marilynne Robinson has, throughout her essays and fiction, looped an iron chord around the twinned facts of faith and the moral self.

If Iran’s Supreme Leader is in fact seriously ill and a succession struggle is about to break out, this casts a dark cloud over the prospects any sort of nuclear deal with the United States happening any time soon.

Russia may be difficult to deter at this point, with a highly motivated, overconfident and dismissive Putin believing that nothing can stand in his way.

Turkey’s top cleric has announced plans for a new Islamic university that aims to supplant Islam’s equivalent of the Ivy League.

Russian assistance to rebel fighters in eastern Ukraine is as brazen as ever, as fighting rages around Donetsk airport. And they’re still calling this state of affairs a ceasefire.

Turkey has authorized military force in Syria and Iraq, but don’t expect much action until it can align intervention with its strategic commitments.

In 1997, the EU pledged its support to the “one country, two systems” formula and to Beijing’s promise to bring democratic elections to Hong Kong. Yet the EU has remained silent since the confrontation between Beijing and the pro-democracy activists began to grow hot this summer.