The "surge" has failed to produce an Afghan government that can stand by itself, and U.S. bureaucratic incoherence is to blame.

In early September, AI publisher Charles Davidson spoke with Jack Blum—chairman of Tax Justice Network USA and one of the world’s premier experts on tax evasion, money laundering, banking and real estate scams, and corporate fraud—about the failure of both presidential campaigns to face up to America’s serious budget and taxation problems.  CD: Let’s turn […]

Current U.S. drug policies have produced mediocre results, at best. Pessimists say that trying to eradicate drug use by making it illegal has failed altogether. Even optimists mostly view the prohibition approach as just holding the line, which is a polite way of saying that we are mired in an ugly status quo, in which […]

As a way to save the planet, not many policies are worse than government-backed ethanol. It’s bad for the economy, bad for the environment, doesn’t reduce greenhouse gases, and has led to rapidly rising food prices.Now a recent report links ethanol mandates to civil unrest, social upheaval, and even war.As the report shows, rising food […]

The American Interest has reviewed Hungary’s democratic deficit four times this year: Charles Gati’s essay, “Hungarian Rhapsodies”; Francis Fukuyama’s “Do Institutions Really Matter?” and his “What’s Wrong with Hungary?” (these two posts prompted an outburst of some 800 responses, mainly from angry Hungarian readers defending the government of Viktor Orbán and its policies); and finally […]

It is easy to assume that the future shape of the American health care system will be settled one way or the other by the November election. But in turns out that whatever happens in the election, and subsequently to Mr. Obama’s signature health reform, we will still be far from resolving some basic challenges […]

In his speech accepting the Republican nomination for president, Mitt Romney vowed to take a hard line in dealing with Russia. “Under my administration,” he said, “our friends will see more loyalty, and Mr. Putin will see a little less flexibility and more backbone.” Earlier in the campaign, Romney had cited Russia as “our number […]

The anniversary of September 11, 2001, with all its remembrances and commemorative exhibits, seems like a fitting time to examine the intricate relationship between contemporary art and politics. Is art supposed to deal with politics? If it doesn’t, should it be forced to? Or is art, in any form, a political activity? There are at […]

Not surprisingly, Israelis are alarmed at the prospect that their southern neighbor will now be led by the Muslim Brotherhood. Israel lost “the devils it knew”: not only Mubarak, but also his top lieutenants, such as General Omar Suleiman, head of Egypt’s General Intelligence Directorate, with whom Israelis have been dealing for years. They fear […]

The Russian nightmare of Islamic radicalism spreading like a contagion is growing closer to reality. Reuters has a thorough report on the radicalization taking place in the mountainous region of Dagestan and the government’s heavy-handed crackdown: In the first half of 2012 alone, the Caucasian Knot website recorded 185 insurgency-related deaths and 168 wounded, making […]