Editor's article picks
by Alon Ben-Meir
89 reviews Published 28.05.2011 Category: by Alon Ben-Meir by Robert Creamer
4 reviews Published 18.01.2012 Category: by Robert Creamer by Robert Creamer Added 02.02.2012
More than most elections, the contest for President this fall is likely to be decided less on “wedge issues” – or even candidate positions that are symbolic of who is on whose side – and more on the character and core values of the candidates --...
by Binoy Kampmark Added 26.01.2012
Like money for jam, journalists have found their demon figure, their publicity machine, in the form of anti-copyright maestro Kim Dotcom. He is a figure of capacious girth with a string of white collar crimes that would make some blush and...
by Sharmine Narwani Added 25.01.2012
People pray next to the coffins of people killed in explosion in the Maidan district of Damascus on Friday, at al-Hasan mosque in Damascus (photo: SANA ) Crossing over the Lebanese border into Syria was anticlimactic. It was the second week of...
by Alon Ben-Mei Added 18.01.2012
For more than two decades I have been involved as a researcher, writer and as a back-channel interlocutor in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The question that has puzzled me as well as the multitude of observers, researchers and even those...
by Robert Creamer Added 18.01.2012
The last few weeks of the Republican Presidential road show has been dominated by discussion of Mitt Romney's career as head of a Wall Street private equity firm - Bain Capital. Most people who enter politics have some previous career in the...
by James J. Zogby Added 10.01.2012
Amidst all the fuss about President Obama's sagging poll numbers, the struggling U.S. economy, and "who's up and who's down" in the Republican presidential primary contest, American University Professor Allan Lichtman has issued his "sure fire"...
by Alon Ben-Meir Added 09.01.2012
The attack of hard-line Jewish settlers on an Israeli military base in the West Bank must not be seen as a passing incident that can simply be eradicated by punishing the perpetrators, as Prime Minister Netanyahu said in the Israeli Parliament....
by Robert Creamer Added 05.01.2012
To maximize their odds of reclaiming their hold on the White House, the Republican establishment believes they need two things: · To nominate Mitt Romney; · To effectively end the Republican nominating process as soon as possible. Last night's...
by James J. Zogby Added 02.01.2012
Watching Tea Party radicals triumph over reasoned compromise in the Congress and Republican party candidates drive themselves rightward off the road in an effort to appeal to their increasingly hardline base reminds me of the adage we learned as...
by Robert Creamer Added 20.12.2011
Every year about this time the gang at Fox News and others in the Right Wing blogosphere get on their high horse about the "liberal attack on Christmas" - or President Obama's "attack on Christmas." Of course all you have to do is have a look at...
by James J. Zogby Added 20.12.2011
Nine months into the "Arab Spring," we surveyed public opinion in seven Arab countries and Iran, asking over 6,000 respondents about their primary political concerns and their degree of satisfaction with the pace of change taking place in their...
by Sharmine Narwani Added 20.12.2011
Since the first public protests broke out in Syria last March, the narratives about the Syrian crisis have stayed fairly true to the theme of all the Arab Revolts. An authoritarian ruler out to crush peaceful opposition to his regime opens fire...
by Robert Creamer Added 15.12.2011
Today, Republican House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan will present his new "bi-partisan compromise" plan to a meeting of an outfit known as the "Bipartisan Policy Center." Ryan's latest proposal would allow individuals to choose between traditional...
by Robert Creamer Added 15.12.2011
Sometime in the next fifteen days, the last American troops will leave Iraq - and the War that began almost nine years ago will finally come to an end. Today, President Obama addresses some of those returning troops at Fort Bragg, North...
by James J. Zogby Added 15.12.2011
On December 7, 2012, six Republican candidates for President (Rep. Ron Paul was not invited) appeared before the Republican Jewish Coalition (NRC) to campaign for Christian votes. There are Jewish Republicans, to be sure, but not enough to make...
by Alon Ben-Meir Added 15.12.2011
Due to a host of common denominators in the Arab world including the lack of traditional liberalism, the tribes' power, the elites' control of business, the hold on power by ethnic minorities, the military that cling to power, and the religious...
by Binoy Kampmark Added 15.12.2011
The protest pedigree of the Putin-generation Russian is a small one. With a police state mentality well and truly in position, taking to the streets is bound to land the individual a period of true, heartfelt police inhospitality. It remains to...
by James J. Zogby Added 07.12.2011
In just one year, relations between the United States and Turkey have moved from tension to cooperation. This was the focus of remarks by a Turkish journalist speaking at the opening session at the second convention of the Turkic American...
by Alon Ben-Meir Added 07.12.2011
In the wake of the Arab Spring and Prime Minister Erdogan's championing of political reforms throughout the Arab world, it has now become more urgent than ever before to find an equitable solution to the Turkish-Kurdish conflict. Short of...
by Sharmine Narwani Added 06.12.2011
The ongoing diplomatic tug of war between Syria and the Arab League took an unexpected turn Monday with rumors of a potential breakthrough. A positive outcome would signal a major political - not procedural - change of heart at the Arab League,...
All articles by Jarl R. Ahlbeck 49528 downloads
The recovery of the earth's climate from the little ice age started about 200 years ago, but the concentration of the atmospheric carbon dioxide started to increase significantly as late as in the 1950s, probably due to rapidly increased burning...
by Robert Creamer 21673 downloads
When Representative Joe Wilson (R-SC) yelled out that President Obama was a "liar" in the middle of Obama's nationally televised address to a joint session of Congress, he became the poster child for the new Republican Party. I definitely mean...
by Olli Raade 14196 downloads
Above there is an interview with Fareed Zakaria by the New Perspectives Quarterly about his book "The Post-American World". Below there is a summary of the book as for a background for the interview. Zakaria argues that America's relative weight...
by Petter Portin 13456 downloads
We consume approximately one gram's worth of genes in every meal. This may not seem like very much, but each of our meals contains trillions of individual genes. The transfer-genes contained in genetically modified food-stuffs are identical to...
by Pentti Huovinen 10817 downloads
Latest research shows that the banning of smoking in restaurants has reduced heart attacks by as much as a fifth. Researchers in the University of California have analysed relevant studies undertaken after 2004. In all the studies it was...
by Michael Johnson 9984 downloads
Has the time come to rethink the concept of piano competitions? Many participants and leading musicians believe so. The proliferation of international competitions - now numbering more than 750 - is producing hundreds of annual laureates who...
by Nathan Gardels 9597 downloads
On Sunday (Editor's note: August 10, 2008) I talked with Zbigniew Brzezinski, the elder statesman who was national security advisor to President Jimmy Carter, about the Russian invasion of Georgia. He long tangled with Soviet power. Now he takes...
by Michael Johnson 9511 downloads
I was between jobs a few years ago when I stumbled into a bit of public relations work for the coffee industry. The coffee marketers seemed a decent lot, just men and women trying to make a living. They had only one characteristic that bothered...
by Michael Johnson 9349 downloads
BORDEAUX - I have witnessed the gradual penetration of tattoo culture into the middle classes in Europe and the United States over the past two or three years but I always thought it would go away. So I was stunned to see that now we have...
by Rebecca MacKinnon and Evgeny Morozov 9100 downloads
NEW YORK - Even the most cold-hearted realists would agree that the failure of Communist censorship played a role in the collapse of the Iron Curtain: Voice of America, the fax machine, rock 'n' roll, and the lure of Western capitalism helped to...
by Jarl R. Ahlbeck 8686 downloads
Summary. The observed winter temperatures for Turku, Finland (and also generally for North America, Europe and Russia) for the past 60 winters have been strongly dependent on the Arctic Oscillation index (AO). When the Arctic Oscillation index...
by Robert Creamer 8223 downloads
The recent controversy over the huge bonuses at financial firms like AIG and J.P. Morgan Chase have served to highlight both the disproportionate growth of the financial sector, and the perverse incentives that led traders and executives to take...
by Stefan Forss 8188 downloads
A few Georgian battalions - trained to fight terrorists, not to manoeuvre against a powerful Russian army! - undertook a militarily deficient offensive against Tskhinvali in South Ossetia on August 8. The Russians replied promptly and...
by Michael Johnson 8077 downloads
BORDEAUX -- Our glamorous, doe-eyed Minister of Justice, Rachida Dati, is the talk of France again - this time over her surprise pregnancy. Always controversial, she has now added spice to the gossip by politely declining to reveal who the...
by Michael Johnson 7877 downloads
As Middle East oil climbs to record highs, research into alternative energy sources is attracting a wave of new science, much of it still experimental and untested. One of the most advanced concepts, scheduled to go live about a year from now,...
by Robert Creamer 7724 downloads
You'd think that the results of November's election -- coupled with the collapse of the economy -- would begin to make Republican lawmakers question the consequences of their blind commitment to right wing economic orthodoxy. Apparently most...
by Binoy Kampmark 7561 downloads
The Waki commission, charged with the task of investigating post-election violence in the aftermath of the Kenyan elections last December, has called for a special tribunal to try various perpetrators. The Commission of Inquiry into...
by Guy Sorman 7481 downloads
PARIS - Hollywood history is often nonsensical, but filmmakers usually have the good sense not to whitewash killers and sadists. Steven Soderbergh's new film about Che Guevara, however, does that, and more. Che the revolutionary romantic, as...
by Michael Johnson 7355 downloads
The Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas, ended Sunday on a somewhat sour note, with some critics and former winners wondering how the jury could award the top prize jointly to the two young winners - one a Chinese...
by Nathan Gardels 6660 downloads
Fareed Zakaria is author of The Post-American World and editor-in-chief of Newsweek International. He spoke with NPQ editor Nathan Gardels in June. NPQ | Barack Obama has been reading your book The Post-American World. If he becomes president,...
All articles by Robert Creamer
690 reviews
If there is anything that the Republicans hate, it's losing. And when it came to the health care bill Republicans lost big. They had bet all the marbles on stopping health care reform cold and then convincing voters next fall that Obama's...
by Ericsson Multimedia Channel
602 reviews
What will life be like in 2020? The telephone equipment company, Ericsson asked 20 thinkers--including professors, inventors, 'futurists,' and digital experts "What will life be like in 2020? Ericsson explains the project: In 2020 - Shaping...
by Michael Johnson
1208 reviews
Britain's decision to ban outspoken Dutch Parliamentarian Geert Wilders from entering the United Kingdom last week dramatizes the religious tensions that once again loom over humankind. Specifically, it is a sign that intolerant Muslim faithful...
by Binoy Kampmark
279 reviews
The occasion is an opening reception at the upmarket Melbourne art gallery, The Metro. The location is affluent Armadale. The show is titled 'On the Wall - International Street Art Group Show', where cliques of constipated art viewers and...
by Jarl R. Ahlbeck
610 reviews
Summary. The observed winter temperatures for Turku, Finland (and also generally for North America, Europe and Russia) for the past 60 winters have been strongly dependent on the Arctic Oscillation index (AO). When the Arctic Oscillation index...
by Dhiraj Singh
263 reviews
WE STAND IN THE middle of New South Wales' Royal National Park holding hands and looking heavenwards to invoke Yullangur-'the dreaming' of the creation serpent-as our guide Les Bursill starts us on a tour of Australia's sacred sites. 'The...
by Robert Creame
59 reviews
People like me who came of political age in the 1960's will never forget the absurd statement from an American General, that we had to destroy a Vietnamese village in order to save it. That Orwellian proposition came to symbolize the essence of...
by Matthew Edlund, M.D.
248 reviews
Do you feel stressed, tired, fatigued, rushed, drained, zapped? Join the club. Add an economic crisis to multiple jobs, kids, elderly parents and a body-crushing lifestyle, and lots of Americans feel whacked-over-the-head overloaded. What's the...
by Alon Ben-Meir
85 reviews
The adoption of nonviolent methods by the Palestinian Authority to advance the Palestinian cause is admirable and represents the most promising strategy to affect change. But for a nonviolent movement to serve the intended purpose of advancing...
by Sharmine Narwani
98 reviews
The Palestine-Israel conflict is no pesky regional skirmish. This century-long battle over territory threatens to draw the entire global community into its bowels if it is not dealt with soon, and the only way out of the current paralysis is to...
by Robert Creamer
134 reviews
You see it all too often - a grisly news story about a kid who runs his car off a cliff. We ask, "how could he have done it, how could he have been so reckless?" The answer invariably comes back: because he was drunk. The same thing just...
by Binoy Kampmark
182 reviews
The Obama administration is making every concerted effort to keep its domestic agenda interesting and perplexing. The decision to make Elena Kagan a Supreme Court appointee has been baffling. Lacking judicial experience, and a legal record...
by Robert Creamer
90 reviews
The weatherman on TV describes it everyday. "A cold front will pass through our area tomorrow afternoon and with it, a major wind shift." Historians may one day pinpoint the last several weeks as the time when the front passed -- and the...
by James J. Zogby
22 reviews
In just one year, relations between the United States and Turkey have moved from tension to cooperation. This was the focus of remarks by a Turkish journalist speaking at the opening session at the second convention of the Turkic American...
by Tom Engelhardt
89 reviews
If, as 2011 begins, you want to peer into the future, enter my time machine, strap yourself in, and head for the past, that laboratory for all developments of our moment and beyond. Just as 2010 ended, the American military's urge to surge...
by Michael Johnson
312 reviews
French workers have never been known for their flexibility. But the impact of globalization has meant a gradual erosion of the cocoon inside which they have traditionally found comfort. The backlash against more rigorous management standards has...
by James J. Zogby
215 reviews
This coming week will tell us a great deal about the ability of President Obama to be a strong leader and an honest broker in Middle East peacemaking. With the President having postponed his Asia visit in order to be on hand for conclusion of...
by Alon Ben-Meir
176 reviews
While the world reacts to the recent flair-up of violence along the Lebanon-Israel border, other developments in the area could present an opportunity to advance regional peace if pursued. The recent visit by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and...
by Robert Creamer
175 reviews
"I know we should provide more money for state government to prevent hundreds of thousands of teachers, police, and public workers from being laid off, but I just can't vote for one more bill that increases the deficit." If I had a dollar for...
by Robert Creamer
9 reviews
To maximize their odds of reclaiming their hold on the White House, the Republican establishment believes they need two things: · To nominate Mitt Romney; · To effectively end the Republican nominating process as soon as possible. Last night's...
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