As an old Cuba hand, I have no desire to defend the island’s communist government or make excuses for its dismal failures in the area of human rights and economic development, but with the news that Cuba is considering the release of yet another tranche of political prisoners, it’s increasingly clear something important is happening down […]

We all have our off days; Tom Friedman (a man I admire) had one last Sunday in a New York Times column calling for higher gas taxes and a crash program to build electric cars.  As usual, he’s worried about the right things and is even ahead of the curve.  The piece raises some serious […]

Is China the best friend of American power?Beijing’s recent missteps in Asia — moving ahead with reactor sales to troubled Pakistan and crudely threatening Japan over the arrest of a Chinese fishing captain — are swiftly solidifying America’s Asian alliances.  The new Japanese government came into office hoping to rebalance Japan’s foreign policy and reduce […]

It’s a little past midnight here in the rolling hunt country of Dutchess County where the Catskills guard the path of the Hudson down to the narrows at West Point.  The leaves are beginning to turn this high and this far north; the dry summer didn’t help, and even though the days can still be […]

Something about blogging brings out my confessional side.  Already this week I’ve confessed my shameful love for Walmart; in one of my first posts I confessed my addiction to the $5 necktie.  Now I’m overwhelmed with the urge to share a dark, dirty literary secret: that I not only read science fiction, I love it, […]

Shifting my main base of operations from the stately Mead manor in Queens to the rustic Mead hideaway in the rolling hunt country of Duchess County involves a lot of shopping; fortunately for me there is a Walmart just a few miles away.At the risk of forfeiting any remaining elite cred I may have, let […]

Nine years ago this morning I came up from the subway stop at 68th Street and Lexington Avenue to hear from the breakfast cart vendor that a plane had crashed into one of the World Trade Center towers in lower Manhattan.  It didn’t seem that important; I pictured a small two seater private plane crashing […]

La rentrée is what the French call this time of year: the re-entry.  Everything comes to a stop in August; it is too hot to work, and the whole country slows down during the late summer dog days.  Then, come September, we come back from the beach, from the cabin in the woods,  or wherever […]

For the last few years the first book I’ve assigned in my classes on the history of American foreign policy is Herman Melville’s novella Benito Cereno.  Written in 1855, and based on the memoirs of New England sea captain, the novella is set off the coast of Chile in 1799.  Bachelor’s Delight, a seal hunting […]

The anxious emails from students are hitting my in-boxes once again: What time are office hours? Are places in the seminar still available? Where can they get advance copies of the syllabus?I don’t have answers to these questions yet; by this time next week I will.Another school year is ready to begin, and for the […]