Our usual reaction to everyday corruption - bribes, graft, payoffs, fixers, grease - is “so what?” For the pragmatic, everyday corruption is a cost of doing business, like the (possibly apocryphal) story of the New York contractor whose superintendent shows up for work with a roll of Benjamins to make…  [more]

They are phrases that will leave a mark on Western culture for many years to come: Enemy combatant. Public safety exceptions. Detainees. Guantanamo Bay. Even as debate took place in the United States about whether suspected Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev should be tried as a civilian or an enemy combatant,…  [more]

A recent discussion at the New York Times’ Room for Debate site asked this question: Is United States military training of foreign forces hopeless, even counterproductive, or can allies be effectively trained to deal with common foes? Sometimes this works, but in many cases - most notably Afghanistan and Iraq…  [more]

The farther you get from Seoul, the more panicked people are that a nuclear holocaust is on the menu in North Korea. April showers bring May flowers, but they usually also bring saber rattling from Pyongyang. This is designed for certain concessions on aid, or moderated sanctions at the United…  [more]

In December, the world was shocked by reports of a brutal gang rape of a student on a bus in New Delhi. The young girl eventually died from her injuries, prompting massive protests, outrage and demands for justice among the Indian public. In response, the Indian government amended its penal…  [more]