Retroview
When the Monsters Come Due

Sixty years later, the most portentous episode of The Twilight Zone resonates for its chilling study of paranoia and mob psychology.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa via Flickr (CC BY-ND 2.0)
COVID-19
Africa’s Pandemic Politics

Political crises, a continent-wide recession, and democratic backsliding—these are just a few of the likely side effects as COVID-19 spreads across Africa.

(Dan Meyers, Unsplash)
Risky Business
The Energy Department’s Dangerous Plutonium Dream

The Trump Administration wants to reprocess spent nuclear fuel to extract plutonium. It’s a dream that won’t die—but it’s never made economic, environmental, or strategic sense.

Photo by Molly Adams via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
E Pluribus Unum
“Stagnant Dreamers” in Southern California

Is the Golden State really the gold standard for assimilating immigrants? Four books illustrate the tensions, trade-offs, and ironies of California’s immigration policies.

U.S. Army Europe (Public Domain)
The German Drawdown Debacle
Bad Policy, Worse Reasons

The Trump Administration finally offers a rationale for the German troop drawdown. It doesn’t make sense.

“The Best Man” poster detail via Pinterest
Retroview
May the Best Man Win

Gore Vidal’s 1964 political drama is a study in the ethics of mudslinging, which remains all too relevant as we enter this year’s election season.

J.M.W. Turner, “Bell Rock Lighthouse” (Wikimedia Commons)
Liberty and Liberalism
Stormy Weather

A recent essay collection from Vladimir Tismaneanu and Bogdan Iacob surveys the “ideological storms” that challenged liberalism in the 20th century—and offers a cautionary tale about the seductions of illiberalism today.

(Courtesy of Criterion Collection)
Retroview
The Radical Empathy of Do the Right Thing

More than 30 years later, Spike Lee’s classic resonates for its honest attention to interracial tensions, and its sad observation of how legitimate grievances can spiral out of control.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock
A Wake Up Call
Geoeconomic Strategy in the COVID Era

In the wake of coronavirus and debates over “decoupling,” the United States needs a new approach to national security: one based on geoeconomics, not geopolitics.

(Wikimedia Commons)
Shropshire Calling
The Poet of Social Distancing

Why the work of A.E. Housman resonates in a time of enforced isolation.

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