Nobody really knows what will happen in 2010, although Larry Sabato’s Jeanne Dixon-inspired post at Politico comes pretty close.  But there are ten stories that will shape the world this year — for better or for worse.  Other crises may erupt (I have not, for example, included the long-running conflict between Israelis and Palestinians on […]

In the cover article for Foreign Policy, which hits stands today, I discuss the intellectual and cultural traditions (based on the four schools I wrote about in Special Providence) which form the basis of Obama’s foreign policy, and the global and domestic challenges that he faces in the context of these traditions. Read it here.

Back in the beginning of the Christmas season, I wrote about the way the gospel Christmas narratives “roll the credits” by giving genealogical tables that link Jesus to Jewish history.  In contemplating Christmas, we should never forget that the first Christmas was first and foremost a Jewish event.  Mary, Joseph, the innkeeper, the shepherds, the […]

Greetings once again from sunny Belize.  Although I am blogging from a lovely beachside cabana with tropical breezes gently keeping the heat (and the insects) at bay as I lazily contemplate the snorkeling expedition we have planned for the afternoon, this point in the new year always reminds me of a fresh snowfall covering the […]

To those of you out there nursing your hangovers, Merry Christmas!  While most of American society considers today to be the last full day of the holiday season, the traditional Christmas won’t end until January 6.For some people Christmas hasn’t even started yet.  In some of the Eastern Orthodox churches, the twelve days of Christmas […]

One year into his first term, we pretty much knew where a new President was located on the classical ideological axes of American foreign policy: internationalism vs. nationalism, realpolitik (Nixon, George H.W. Bush) vs. idealpolitik (Jimmy Carter). Within internationalism, there has always been an additional distinction: exemplarism vs. interventionism. Would America shine by example and […]

Every time I’m about to pile on President Obama for his foreign policy errors, I have to check myself and recall his painful starting point. George W. Bush left him with the worst heap of inflammatory international garbage and country drownings in American history. The only problem Bush made better, in fact much better, was […]

Our great foreign policy experiment with North Korea and its nuclear weapons program is over. For most of the past twenty years, three strands of thought about how to deal with this problem have competed for primacy. There were those who advocated energetic engagement with North Korea, forgiving their serial trespasses and being willing to […]

It is in the best interest of China to see a nuclear-free Korean peninsula; that’s what the Chinese government should want, has wanted and still wants. The reality, however, is that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has already obtained nuclear weapons, as proven by its two tests, and has accumulated enough nuclear materials […]

Barack Obama has based his policies as President on two assumptions. One year after his election both assumptions appear to have been mistaken.His domestic policies have been based on the assumption that economic distress would produce an increased demand for, or at least acceptance of, big government policies. The financial crisis of September 2008 had […]