So the Administration announced yesterday that it was going to arm the Syrian rebels, and it’s moving some military forces around, too. Commentators are nearly unanimous in concluding that we’re edging much closer now to involvement in this civil war, one with major and fairly large regional implications. Some folks are singing the talkin’ Syria […]

The Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling against Myriad Genetics is a triumph for common sense and the common good, and for scientific research and legal fundamentals as well. The decision means that all of the existing patents on human genes—some 15,000 of them—are no longer valid. It affirms a century of legal precedent that prohibits patents […]

I’m sure some readers are growing weary of the back-and-forth on Russia over the past few months, but I hope they will indulge me in one more response to Thomas Graham’s reply to me and other critics of his original piece. Replies from several of us generated his latest, “A Response to the Critics.” Several […]

The news from the White House today brings the United States significantly closer to yet another Middle Eastern war. Concluding that “forces loyal” to the brutal Syrian dictator Assad had used chemical weapons against rebels, President Obama is stepping up the “scope and scale” of aid to the forces seeking to drive Assad from power. […]

An Evolving Hope That’s Here to Stayby Seyom Brown & Ronald E. NeumannR2P can be a prod for effective humanitarian intervention, but not a recipe suited to particular cases. Implementation can improve, but it will never be easy.A Feel Good Fallacyby Rajan MenonThe Responsibility to Protect concept is not flawed because it’s hard to implement; […]

Cautionary Note: The following text has been rated PG. Parental discretion is advised.Not all issues in the contemporary American culture wars involve sexuality. A good many do (possibly due to the long shadow of Puritanism). Sometimes issues that started elsewhere, such as in disputes over the role of religion in public life, take on bizarre forms […]

Tom Graham’s wide-ranging “Response to the Critics” included a question for me, in his fourth paragraph. He saw an inconsistency between, on the one hand, my view that Putin’s crackdown over the first year of his latest Presidency has been internally generated and was not a response to U.S. pressure, and, on the other hand, […]

The Responsibility to Protect concept is not flawed because it’s hard to implement; it’s hard to implement because it’s a paragon of moral illogic.

A December 2012 appellate court decision to allow off-label drug marketing withstands scrutiny, but you must know the case’s complex backstory to understand why.

Something very curious is happening in Turkey. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its leader, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, appear to have been rattled by the Istanbul demonstrations that started on May 31. With the world’s attention on Gezi Park in Taksim, they seem to be at a loss as to how […]