Historians traffic in characters and plots. They appreciate the extent to which timing, location and personality matter. Anthropologists, on the other hand, eschew the importance of contingency, inadvertence and timing, treating humans like predictable atoms, not willful Adams.

Today there is a sizeable gap between elite and non-elite opinion on immigration reform. Time to cut through the fog of fear and moralizing dividing them.

This is not your grandfather’s Great Depression. It’s ours. And it will scar and mold and re-shape us in its own unique way.

The age-old scourge of piracy has come back to haunt us off the waters of Somalia. Our troubles in dealing decisively with the problem are largely of our own making.

French immigration dilemmas can no longer be denied.

Are Ayn Rand and her adept Alan Greenspan to blame for our economic woes? Answering that question requires something more than parody and less than unqualified praise.

I recently read Tom Daschle’s new book, “Critical: What We Can Do About the Health Care Crisis” (co-authored with Jeanne M. Lambrew and Scott S. Greenberger). This book has particular relevance since he will soon be the new czar of health care reform in the Obama administration. Arguing that it would be politically infeasible for […]

Memo to the National Security Advisor: Learn from your predecessors.

Mere enthusiasm does not a successful government make.

New tools to fight WMD proliferation need to be institutionalized, not abandoned.