There is no moral equivalence between the Islamic State and Putin’s Russia—the first is a genocidal totalitarianism while the second is brutally authoritarian, but not genocidal. But both want to carve out new or enlarged states across internationally recognized borders, both threaten international stability, and both ultimately legitimate themselves in religious terms.

Israel is shaping up to be an unexpectedly important energy player in the Middle East, providing the promise of collaboration and economic growth in a part of the world in which both are in very short supply.

Scotland’s pro-independence side may not succeed on Thursday, but it might not be such a bad thing for small government and balanced budgets if it did.

For the Western political observer, Russia judged by common metrics always seems on the verge of being a spent force. As Joseph Conrad reminds us, Russia never seems to vanish from the map, and remains a font of imperialism and war.

President Obama’s critics seem to be getting under his skin with their criticisms. But it appears the President doesn’t fully grasp the substance of his critics’ complaints about his leadership.

The cultural abdication of adulthood that A.O. Scott describes in this week’s New York Times Magazine is real. We risk leaving to our children the impossible task of loving a world that we don’t respect enough to love ourselves.

What both conservatives and liberals are missing in the fight over the new AP U.S. History standards.

The ineptitude of Britain’s politicians have them scrambling to stop Scottish independence with only a week to go. But Britain’s inability to handle Scotland should raise flags in Brussels and Washington as well.

Putin’s goal is clear: to dismember Ukraine in whole or in part as a means of restoring Russia to great power status. The West has few opportunities left to prevent Moscow from achieving its end game.

For years Qatar has played a brilliant a double game between Islamism and the West, offering aid and comfort for the forces of the former while doing the bare minimum asked of it by the latter. But is this act beginning to wear thin?