Category Archives: General

Obama’s election last Tuesday marks an enormous opportunity for the United States to redefine itself, both with respect to its economic and social model, and in how it relates to the outside world. It is in this capacity for periodic … Continue reading →

Watching Vice President Cheney in Tbilisi today pledging US support for Georgia’s territorial integrity, it is impossible not to fear that the United States is, with total recklessness, repeating the same tragic mistake that it made with regard to Hungary … Continue reading →

I have known Peter Rodman for so many years that I cannot remember when I met him. Peter and I were in email contact just last week (I asked him to write something for the next issue of The American … Continue reading →

Francis Fukuyama and Robert Kagan discuss mostly China upon Bob’s return from Belgium.

The following is a transcript of a commencement address by Francis Fukuyama, delivered at the Pardee Rand Graduate School, Santa Monica, CA, June 21, 2008. I’m really deeply honored to be asked to be the commencement speaker for Pardee Rand … Continue reading →

The fiasco of the Olympic Torch Relay has focused attention on the condition of human rights in China.  What is the source of human rights abuses in that country today?  Many people assume the problem is that China remains a … Continue reading →

I find myself greatly saddened by the news of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination. I met her for the first time when we took a class together on Middle Eastern Politics at Harvard, while she was still an undergraduate. I saw her … Continue reading →

I was in Warsaw, Poland, and Aarhus, Denmark last week on the heels of recent elections in both countries. The victory of Donald Tusk’s Civic Platform party over the incumbent Law and Justice party in the Polish case was genuinely … Continue reading →

Rabaul sits at the northern end of New Britain island, and is the capital of Papua New Guinea’s East New Britain Province. Physically, Rabaul looks like a South Pacific paradise. Its bay is actually the caldera of a volcano with … Continue reading →

Conversation with Bob Wright on Russia, Japan, Papua New Guinea, and other places visited over the summer.