World Cup 2022: What’s In It For Qatar?
To host soccer’s top international competition, held once every four years, Qatar had to spend $300 billion — the equivalent of 170 percent of its GDP — buying not only a brand new infrastructure...
Delaware
How to Protect America’s Heartland from Global Corruption
When outside real estate money moved into Cleveland in a big way starting in 2008, locals were upbeat. Investors were betting on the “upside of a Midwestern city” that had been passed by, The Plain...
Op-eds
Has Trump Fixed the ‘Worst Deal Ever’? Kinda, Sorta
As a presidential candidate, Donald Trump made a lot of promises: repealing Obamacare, tax cuts for all, and of course this big, beautiful pledge:...
Op-eds
Russian Troops Deploy Near Syria-Israel Border
In late July, Russia deployed four military police battalions to monitor a pair of safe zones in Syria, including a southwestern...
Policy Briefs
Snap-Back: A Journey Through Iranian Sanctions Evasion in Georgia
Two Iranian truck drivers sat idly in the parking area of the Poti Free Industrial Zone(FIZ), waiting for customs authoriti...
Op-eds
Baroness Ashton Regrets
On August 22, the Palestinian Authority postponed local elections indefinitely, and Catherine Ashton had nothing to say.
Op-eds
The Sunni Side of the Street
As U.S. forces have pushed out from their bases and into neighborhoods across Iraq, and the surge has dramatically increased their capacity for offensive operations, a sense of security has swept...
Op-eds
Abyei: The Abscess Threatening the Sudan
If all goes as planned, exactly one month from today, on January 9, 2011, voters in the ten states of southern Sudan as well as southerners living in the northern part of the country and abroad w...
Op-eds
Angry America? Tea Partiers with Pitchforks?
The USA Today headline the day after the elections: “Voters Send Angry Message.” Time’s two-word explanation for the electoral tsunami: “voter rage.” The Economist&r...
Op-eds
Biden’s Baggage
Tiny Delaware barely registers in the Electoral College, but Barack Obama selected Joseph R. Biden Jr., the state’s senior senator, as his running mate. There’s one explanation: forei...
Op-eds
Change (And A Few Dollars) You Can Believe In
From the Washington Post: Sen. Barack Obama sought more than $3.4 million in congressional earmarks for clients of the lobbyist son of his Democratic running ma...