A pope and a grand imam
Pope Tawadros II had planned to spend last week on retreat in a monastery near Alexandria. But then Mohammed bin Salman, on a three-day visit to Egypt, asked to see him. The Saudi Crown...
Holy See
This Christmas, Remember Imprisoned Pastor Andrew Brunson
Pastor Andrew Brunson will be spending his second Christmas in a Turkish jail, unfairly held by the Erdogan government on...
Policy Briefs
Nobody Knows Anything About Fascism
As I wrote in this space a few weeks ago, Donald Trump is no fascist, but there...
Op-eds
The U.N. Assault on the Catholic Church
In the name of protecting children,the United Nations is now preaching to the Vatican. A report on the Holy See—released by a U.N. committee last week to much media fanfare—alleged th...
Op-eds
Syria’s Pals at the Chemical Weapons Convention
With Russia on his side, Syria’s President Bashar Assad has now agreed to sign on to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), which is meant to eliminate chemical weapons from the world once...
Op-eds
The New Palestinian Strategy
One word went unspoken in an interview President Barack Obama gave to journalist Jeffrey Goldberg in late February. In their 45-minute discussion, devoted exclusively to the subject of Israel, th...
Op-eds
UN-Real Assembly
As the contributors to The National Interest symposium in the current issue note, there is an emergent consensus among foreign policy analysts of all political persuasions that “going...
Op-eds
Our Friends, the Saudis?
Last week, Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah was welcomed to the White House by President Obama. According to the Washington Post, their meeting provided an opportunity “to demonstrate the...
Op-eds
UN-Real Assembly
As the contributors to The National Interest symposium in the current issue note, there is an emergent consensus among foreign policy analysts of all political persuasions that “going it alone” interventionism is no longer a viable option for the United States, if it ever was before. Two general solutions are now frequently bandied about in Washington policy circles and both are flawed. The first is the creation, advocated Ivo Daalder, Robert Kagan, G. John Ikenberry and others of a “concert of democracies” to “legitimately” bypass gridlock in the United Nations Security Council. The second is the opening à la Baker-Hamilton of diplomatic dialogue with the rulers of regional spoilers like Iran and Syria. Both address some of the weaknesses with the current modus operandi, but they fail to grapple with the fundamental defect of the contemporary international system: its dogmatic adherence to a post-Westphalia formal equality of states and consequent lack of a forum reflecting the realities of global power.
Op-eds
Myths of War: The Ten Most Widely Believed Distortions About the Global Conflict Now Underway
Co-Authored with Alykhan Velshi Ronald Reagan once said: “It’s not that liberals are ignorant, it’s just that they know so much that isn’t true.&rdquo...
Op-eds
Admit We’re Peaceful…or Else
Last week, speaking to a packed audience in St. Peter's Square, Pope Benedict XVI revisited his September 12 lecture to academics at the University of Regensburg. The pontiff explained that...