Essays
NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA/AFP/Getty Images
Soft Power
Authoritarianism Goes Global

Undemocratic states are kicking their influence-peddling machines into high gear.

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Russia and the West
Why Putin’s Turkey Sanctions Will Boomerang

Moscow’s predictable tactics becomes less effective with each use.

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Frenemies
The Stupidity of Saudi Bashing

It’s a little like a drug high, with a purposeless sense of exhilaration quickly giving way to a serious headache. If you’re tempted, seek counseling.

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Changing the Channel
It’s Not Just the Jihadi Web

We need to shut down jihadi television too.

Religion & Other Curiosities
The Texas Board of Education and the Whispers of the Universe

There is a curious resemblance between the fundamentalists of both the Protestant and “New Atheist” varieties.

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The Obama Doctrine: Responses
Back to Normalcy

Obama’s America and Abe’s Japan: two countries trying to get “back to normalcy”—but from opposite directions.

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Russia & The West
The Long Standoff

Two years after the annexation of Crimea, it is clear that neither Russia nor the West is prevailing—in large part because one does not have enough strength, while the other lacks will.

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Latin Lefty Meltdown
The Castro Bros Aren’t Feeling The Bern

President Obama is in Havana today because not even the Castro brothers can cling any longer to the pretense that, somehow, socialism can solve the problems of Latin America.

© David Blankenhorn
Civil Society
With the Anti-Trumpers in New York

This weekend’s anti-Trump protest in New York featured a fair amount of anti-police and anti-free speech rhetoric from the protest leaders. Even so, the course of wisdom is not simply to criticize the protests, but to swell the anti-Trump cause.

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Misreading the Middle East
The Costs of Lost US Credibility

If the Obama Administration is truly committed to containing Iran in the wake of the nuclear deal, it needs to understand how others in the region perceive it.

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