For some Iranians, the recent elections were a hopeful signal; for many outsiders, they were a signal for cautious optimism. But there’s one country that has good reasons to be skeptical of any good news from Tehran: namely, Israel. That skepticism has driven Israel to search far and wide for geopolitical partners in places that […]

Edward Snowden’s elaborately staged press conference at Sheremetyevo Airport on Friday culminated in his renewed request for political asylum in Russia, if only to enable his eventual flight to Latin America. So far, Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador have all offered him asylum (in Venezuela’s case, the offer was legally certified), but it nonetheless must have […]

For those hoping that Georgia’s seemingly endless political turmoil would subside after 2012’s transfer of power, the last seven months have offered little respite. Though the new government has made some genuine headway with a variety of important reforms, such initiatives have largely played second fiddle to a regular drumbeat of despair. The latest such […]

by Jamie HorganFirst, a grainy image of a hose on fire; next, a slow shot of verdant, rain-drenched woods. That’s how Josh Fox’s documentary film Gasland II opens, and it encapsulates his vision of the two sides of the fracking debate: those who seek to destroy nature, and those who defend it. What follows is […]

Religion and politics are never far apart in the Promised Land, but a new intra-religious civil war with a characteristically Israeli mix of high-octane ideology and gutter-level politicking has lately been grabbing the headlines. Unseemly as the whole thing is, the conflict has at least one virtue: It is laying some fundamental questions of commitment […]

Last week’s European Summit in Brussels has become a pale afterthought in record time. The reasons are threefold. First, the summit has been overshadowed by other events, not least in Egypt, but also those surrounding the Snowden affair. Second, expectations were low to being with, since the summit preceded politically pregnant elections in Germany this […]

“If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well it were done quickly,” says Macbeth before murdering King Duncan. Like many such gambits, and not only in Shakespeare, the one played out in Australian politics ended badly for the assassin.Three years ago almost to the day, Julia Gillard back stabbed her Prime Minister Kevin […]

Reports that Ottawa and Washington have resumed their delicate missile-defense discussions suggest that Canada may be ready to join the global missile-defense coalition. If so, it would be a welcome development.The operative word here is “global.” The missile shield now taking shape is a truly international missile defense (IMD) enfolding some of Canada’s closest allies […]

Above: Egyptian riot police try to disperse clashes between supporters the ruling Muslim Brotherhood and protestors calling for the resignation of Culture Minister Alaa Abdel Aziz in Cairo on June 11, 2013. Photo courtesy of Getty Images. The revolutions that swept the Arab world in early 2011 took on a distinctive character in the nations they touched, […]