Articles

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 --...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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"...

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....

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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,...