Column Archive

President Barack Obama has now won enough support among Democrats in Congress to ensure that the nuclear agreement reached between world powers and Iran will move forward. But while indisputably a major political achievement, the victory is not any guarantee of long-term success. We can now see the outlines of the next phase of the struggle, in which profound disagreements over the deal persist in Washington, denying any semblance of consensus on one of the president’s most important foreign policy wins. First, to savor the success. It remains unknown whether Senate Democrats will manage to prevent the resolution of disapproval […]

Editor’s Note: This is the second of a two-part column on the Islamic State’s use of extreme brutality as part of its strategy. Part I looked at the roots and intended effects of that brutality. Part II examines whether extreme brutality is sustainable or will be the group’s downfall, and what that means for the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State. The past week brought another example of the deranged brutality of the so-called Islamic State. In this case, a video surfaced showing the extremists burning alive four prisoners from a Shiite militia group. Far from an anomaly, this was […]

The good times are winding down in much of Latin America, and with them ends not only a period of economic growth but very possibly also one of relative political stability. As the global economy and financial markets strain to adjust to a slowdown in China, for years one of the world’s principal engines of growth, no region of the world will feel a more painful punch from the new reality. In fact, the International Monetary Fund’s growth projections show Latin America and the Caribbean with the slowest economies of any major region this year. Such a sharp deceleration inevitably […]

With Congress preparing to vote on the Iran nuclear deal later this month, the proverbial fat lady in the wings is preparing for her solo. After months of lobbying, millions spent on advertising, hundreds of op-eds, thousands of articles and an incalculable number of tweets, the opponents of the P5+1 nuclear agreement with Iran are on the verge of a major defeat. Indeed, the White House is now pushing for Democrats to filibuster the vote in the Senate and prevent President Barack Obama from having to veto any resolution. Even if not blocked in the Senate, the White House has […]

The late-August headlines have been heartrending, from the continued violence of the Islamic State against both people and cultural patrimony, to stirrings of public discontent and rage over government incompetence in several Arab states. The latest of the summer’s tragedies came last week, when the lifeless bodies of 71 migrants, including four children, were found inside a truck in Austria. The horrific discovery moved the ever-expanding tragedy of illegal migration from war zones into Southern and Eastern Europe back into the spotlight. Although many commentators have pointed the finger at Europe’s institutional failings to manage the migration crisis, much of […]