Flickr photo via European People’s Party (CC BY 2.0)
Memo to Germany
Merkel’s Split-the-Difference Strategy Isn’t Working

Transatlantic ties are fraying not just because of Trump, but because Berlin has not fully accepted its leadership role in Europe.

Maurycy Gottlieb, “Jews Praying in the Synagogue on Yom Kippur” (Wikimedia Commons)
American Jews and Israel
The Roots of the Rift

The controversy over President Trump’s executive order on anti-Semitism reflects a broader gap in how American and Israeli Jews understand themselves. A new book by Daniel Gordis explores the divide.

Pablo Picasso, “The Weeping Woman I,” 1937 (MoMA)
Rabble-Rousing for Fun & Profit
The Outrage-Industrial Complex

In the culture of pervasive outrage, everything is an outrage, so nothing is.

(Wikimedia Commons)
Ukraine's Frozen Conflict
The Dead End of the Normandy Format

Putin and his regime are thugs and kleptocrats. Only they can bring peace to Ukraine—not comfortable dilettantes at diplomatic summits.

“The Thinker: Portrait of Louis N. Kenton” by Thomas Eakins (Wikimedia Commons)
The Literary Life
The Quiet American Novel

A new book by Steve Almond offers a deeply personal take on John Williams’s classic novel Stoner: a minor-key masterpiece about ordinary life, the pursuit of passions, and the lost art of paying attention.

(Warner Bros.)
The New Normal
Joker and Our Leaderless Future

The controversial film captures the reality of our peer-to-peer age: From Hong Kong to Paris, mass movements are increasingly flaring up without formal leadership or organization.

(Wikimedia Commons)
Off Autopilot
Taking the Fight to the Kleptocrats

“Graft and corruption are bad” is an effective, uncontroversial slogan that cuts across ideological divides. It commands support in both center-left and center-right circles—especially in the United States.

(Wikimedia Commons)
Strategic Stalemate
Hong Kong’s Long View

The struggle over Hong Kong seems headed toward stalemate. But while the Hong Kongers can tolerate not winning in the short term, the CCP is worried that they are not losing.

The UK Election, Blow-By-Blow

Midnight ESTWhat a night it has been. With around a hundred seats left to declare, Boris Johnson and the Conservative party are on target for a majority of about 70 seats–the party’s best result since Margaret Thatcher in 1987. Their vote share will be around 45 per cent—its best since the 1970s.Labour in contrast looks […]

(Wikimedia Commons)
Institutional Reform
Our Flawed Impeachment Process

The impeachment process has judicial features, but it is not an impartial court proceeding. Indeed, the “jurors” are politicians.

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