I recently came across a FiveBooks interview from two years ago (exactly: July 4, 2010) with Republican Indiana governor Mitch Daniels. Though I don’t align ideologically with Daniels, I was happily surprised reading through the interview. He comes across as well-read and eloquent, better than John Kerry in his FiveBooks. I’d recommend giving it a read, especially if you’re interested [...]

China’s rise is probably the most important phenomenon in world politics–today and into the future. Though radical Islamist terrorism has dominated post-9/11 American foreign policy, it seems unlikely terrorism can shift the entire structure of the world economy (especially given the effectiveness of American policies in weakening al-Qaeda). On the other hand, China is already crucial to the world economy’s [...]

Offensive realists, such as John Mearsheimer, predict a rising China will inevitably challenge American power. This is a function of fundamental uncertainty on the part of states as to the intentions of other states, and each state’s intense fear for its own survival. China will be a revisionist actor, not because of any inherent revisionism in the Chinese character, but [...]

Proponents of the concept of “soft power,” such as Joseph Nye, argue that if foreigners have a good view of a country’s culture, that country will have greater international influence. This is especially important in the case of the US, as we are a huge exporter of culture through Hollywood. Although we’re the world’s most powerful country today, we began [...]

I take this column’s title in part from Steve Vai’s Passion and Warfare, a masterpiece of guitar virtuosity. The album opens with “Liberty,” then segues into “Erotic Nightmares” and “The Animal.” The album peaks with “For the Love of God” at the seventh track, and finishes with “Love Secrets.” I’m not just listing off these titles to fill space, but [...]

On Tuesday, Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian government agreed to abide by the peace plan put forward by Kofi Annan, envoy to the conflict for the UN and the Arab League. The plan calls for, at minimum, daily breaks in the fighting for humanitarian workers to provide assistance to the wounded, and also goes further, requiring the Syrian government to respect free assembly [...]

When looking for potential parallels for Barack Obama’s foreign policy, analysts often compare the approaches of former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Dwight Eisenhower. The key uniting principle, in the eyes of these commentators, is the “pragmatism” or “realism” of their foreign policies. All three avoided initiating long, drawn out wars, but none were afraid to use military force when [...]

Cullen Murphy has a good op-ed in the Sunday New York Times on the timeless importance of doubt. Here, I want to write something of a corollary to that piece, on the importance of self-doubt in specific. Self-doubt works on multiple levels. First, there is doubt in our own correctness. This doubt is roughly divisible into doubt in our ethics, [...]

Should we attack Iran to preempt their achieving nuclear weapons capabilities? Some argue it is imperative for our security, for Israel’s security, for the security of the oil supply. Others, though, warn not to make the same mistake we made in deposing Saddam Hussein. It was easy to take out the leader, but not wanting another failed state out there, [...]

How did the economic crisis happen? How were so many people so wrong about the proper prices of houses, the future trajectory of those prices, the benefits of financial innovation, and even as worrying signs appeared, the depth and length of the crisis? I argue, essentially, that it’s based in human nature, and maybe the nature of things more broadly. [...]