Syndicate content

Democracy

Commentary

A Second-Best President for Egypt

Two certainties about Egypt's elections: the winner won't be anyone's first choice, and he will have a hard road ahead.

How to Keep Afghanistan Secure

Washington has been repeating the same mistakes in Afghanistan for 30 years. Obama is poised to continue the cycle.

The Future of Middle Eastern Christians

The Arab Spring and the rise of Islamist parties present both opportunities and threats to the region's religious minorities.

Essays

The Global Power Shift from West to East

Pax Americana and the age of Western dominance are fading. Washington can manage this decline, but first it must acknowledge its reality. History moves forward with a crushing force and does not wait for the unprepared.

America's Civic Deadlock and the Politics of Crisis

Congress is paralyzed. National debt is skyrocketing. America’s political consensus can no longer address the country’s most basic problems. We must resolve the question of what will replace it.

Iraq's Federalism Quandary

Iraq faces major questions about the power-sharing agreements between Baghdad and Iraq's various regions. A solution may require granting greater autonomy to the country's Kurds than to other regions.

Why We Exist

The National Interest stands for realism in U.S. international relations, a conviction that foreign policy should be based upon real-world considerations—forces, pressures and passions emanating from factors of culture and geography.

We Bow to the God Bipartisanship

Bipartisanship: the Holy Grail of American politics. Long the go-to buzzword for presidents, elusive cross-aisle support at home has all too often been purchased at the price of good policy abroad.

Something Is Rotten in the State of Iraq

Sunni vs. Shia. Kurd vs. Arab. Nationalist vs. Islamist. Iraq circa 2011 is looking an awful lot like Iraq circa 2004. The country is headed back to the anarchic depths from which it ever-so-briefly emerged.

Blogs

535 Secretaries of State

Congress running foreign policy. The president usurping war powers. This is not what the Founding Fathers intended.

The Soft Power of Equal Opportunity

America, like China, will suffer from the inequality fostered by nepotism and cronyism. 

Books & Reviews

A Singular Empire

In his excellent study of the Roman Empire, Greg Woolf provides sharp insights while wisely avoiding simplistic comparisons, instead mixing a broad perspective with telling details to provide a fascinating picture of the empire par excellence.

Death by Irrelevance

Rockefeller, Lindsay, Scranton—just three of the “moderates” who failed to keep the GOP from the clutches of Goldwater and Nixon. Geoffrey Kabaservice laments their defeat with a wistfulness that obscures from him their true frustration.

Eyes and Ears of the Arab Spring

The English-language news channel of Al Jazeera consistently is first on the scene of Mideastern developments, and its journalists provide smart analysis of global events. It may be today’s most influential television-news operation.

Follow The National Interest

May 26, 2012