Cuba has been searching for oil for years; improving technology means its chances are better than ever, and a new exploratory rig offers the island nation its best hope for good economic news since communism began to eat away at the island’s hopes back in the Eisenhower administration. Oil didn’t save communism in the Soviet […]

Back at the start of the decade, Via Meadia predicted that “[t]he end of the Cold War combined with the rise of Asia will introduce the world to a new kind of reality: a post-European world order.” The past year has moved the world a long way down this path. The United States spent the […]

Last month, Via Meadia reviewed a recent study about the quality of academic research and came to a disappointing conclusion: Much of the research produced by academics isn’t very good. A recent article in The Atlantic adds a new wrinkle: Not only is the quality of this research quite poor, universities are spending a fortune […]

A reply to Walter Russell Mead.

A reply to Walter Russell Mead.

A reply to Walter Russell Mead.

CS Lewis, who with his Oxford colleague JRR Tolkien, ranks with Ian Fleming, Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle as among the best known 20th century British authors among Americans, turned both Winston Churchill and the Queen down flat, newly released British documents show.The Order of the British Empire was established by George V originally […]

Earlier this month, reports that Indiana was gearing up for a fight between conservative politicians and organized labors brought echoes of Scott Walker’s Wisconsin to mind. The comparison has just become even more apt—the New York Times reports that Democrats opposing the right-to-work bill have decided to defeat it the only way they can—by refusing […]

Nigeria’s national borders were drawn by British colonial officials after WWII. Since then, nothing but tension and violence, interspersed with periods of relative calm, have characterized the relationship between Nigeria’s religious and tribal groups. Several times since independence, conflicts have escalated into civil war or efforts by one group or another to form their own […]

The former president of Harvard put forward some important thoughts on higher education in a speech to the New York Times Schools for Tomorrow conference. He proposes six “guesses and hopes.” Here’s a quick excerpt: Suppose the educational system is drastically altered to reflect the structure of society and what we now understand about how […]