TAI Editor-at-Large Walter Russell Mead will be conducting a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” today at 2 p.m. EDT, so start thinking of any questions you’d like to have answered!

Fortuitous historical sequencing in political development is one of the keys to good government.

Germans from districts that persecuted Jews the most zealously don’t invest as much in the stock market, according to a new study. Anti-Semitism isn’t just contemptible; it is evidence of an inability to understand a complex world.

Modi’s BJP sweeps to victory in two state elections.

A chilling account from an African film-maker suggests that the outbreak in Liberia may be much worse that reported.

Roger Berkowitz recently gave the opening lecture at the Hannah Arendt Center Conference “The Unmaking of Americans: Are There Still American Ideas Worth Fighting for?” The conference, held at Bard College, included talks by David Bromwich, Anand Girdirhardas, Kennan Ferguson, Jerome Kohn, Ann Lauterbach, Lawrence Lessig, Charles Murray, George Packer, Robert Post, Joan Richardson, Amity Shlaes, Jim Sleeper and Kendall Thomas. You can view the conference in its entirety here. For the weekend read this week, we provide an edited transcript of Professor Berkowitz’s speech: “American Exceptionalism: What Are We Fighting For?”

There’s a better way between the contending libertarian and paternalist approaches to regulating drugs.

Libya’s General Haftar aims to retake Benghazi—with the aid of Egyptian airpower and coordination.

Ivan Klíma’s political autobiography illuminates the surreality of Czechoslovak communism even as it fails to answer “the question”: Why the Jews?

The massive and still accelerating cross-border movement of people across the globe might be the most portentous development of our times.