Category Archives: Politics
Life in a G-Zero World
The nature of world politics has changed more rapidly in the past four years than anyone expected. From the fall of the Berlin Wall up to the financial crisis of 2008, the United States had enjoyed a unprecedented period of … Continue reading
Mongolia, Mining, and Malfeasance
I recently returned from a trip to Mongolia and Myanmar. The linking of these countries on the same itinerary was accidental, though they both actually have a lot in common: they border China and much of their recent foreign policy … Continue reading
Conservatives and the State
When I was asked by the editors of the Financial Times to contribute to a series on the future of conservatism, I hesitated because it seemed to me that in both the US and Europe what was most needed was … Continue reading
The Two Europes
The Greek election on Sunday was a predictable disaster: the two mainstream parties, the socialist PASOK and the center-right New Democracy (ND), were displaced by new extremist parties that appeared on their right and left, including the left-wing Syriza and … Continue reading
Do Institutions Really Matter?
Over the past decade the mantra in both development studies and comparative politics has been “institutions matter”—that is, you aren’t going to get economic growth or other human development objectives in the absence of institutions like rule of law, transparent … Continue reading
American Exceptionalism
In this campaign season, a lot of Republican candidates, particularly Newt Gingrich, have been talking about American Exceptionalism. When Gingrich says that President Obama doesn’t understand how exceptional the United States is, he means this in only a positive sense: … Continue reading
New Year’s Resolution
My resolution for 2012 is to restart the blogging I did on The American Interest’s web site, something I haven’t done since 2009. I stopped writing back then because I was in the process of drafting the first volume of … Continue reading
