The New York Times reports that Russian fighters stationed in Armenia have stepped up the number of training flights this year by about 20 percent, “sending a clear warning that Russia could intervene at any moment should violence escalate further in the territorial dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan.” At least eight soldiers were killed in […]

The following is an excerpt from Colin Powell’s book It Worked For Me: In Life and Leadership Leaders must be problem solvers. If you are not solving problems, you are no longer leading. Hopefully the problems you are solving relate to you, your organization, or your own interests. That is not always the case. Sometimes […]

The news from the region over the past few days constitutes, as always, more of the same and yet something new. Let me take you on a selective tour, ending with the most attention-arresting story of our time—Syria.Of all the developments in the Arab world, none come close to being as important as those in […]

Via Meadia extends our heartiest symapthies to French President Francois Hollande on the occasion of his apparent victory in the first round of France’s legislative elections, where the left is well on its way to gaining a clear legislative majority. We also extend our condolences to world leaders ranging from Angela Merkel to Barack Obama; […]

The Obama Administration’s “pivot” to Asia has so far met with a warm welcome from China’s neighbors, who have been unnerved by Beijing’s more assertive posture in recent years. Still, Washington should be mindful of shifting public opinion among its allies in the Asia-Pacific region.In Australia, for instance, former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser made waves […]

CBS News reports (h/t Heritage) that Chicago’s teacher’s union has voted to authorize a strike with a decisive 90 percent of the vote. If the union follows through with the authorization, it would mark the union’s first strike in a quarter century.At the root of the dispute is a disagreement over Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plans […]

There is some hope, John Campbell reports at CFR, that the Nigerian government has been involved in talks with Boko Haram, facilitated by a well-known Muslim sheikh in the north of the country. The details of a negotiated deal, in which the government would cease arresting Boko Haram members on condition of a ceasefire, were […]

Frank Bruni has joined the ranks of New York Times columnists like Paul Krugman and Maureen Dowd in an outbreak of synchronized finger wagging at the President. Obama still seems Lincolnian to them; only now the Times is beginning to treat Obama much the same way the New York World treated Abe. (Hint: It wasn’t […]

In September 2007 the New York Times announced a distance-learning venture called the Knowledge Network. The newspaper had partnered with a handful of schools, including NYU, Stanford, Mount Holyoke and Towson, to offer online courses with varying degrees of professorial involvement. Some courses were 100 percent online, others held periodic “meeting times” over the Internet with the instructor. The […]

On June 1, 2012, The New York Times carried a story by Ellen Barry about the Russian Orthodox Church giving moral support to the Russian policy in the current crisis in Syria. That policy has been marked by persistent vetoes in the Security Council against all attempts to take strong steps against the Syrian regime. […]