The American people and their openness to Muslim communities will in many ways determine the success of US President Barack Obama's global engagement initiative, which he launched on his inauguration day a year ago by calling for a "new way forward" with Muslims. Change will depend in large part on how Americans think, and it is therefore crucial to understand American perceptions of Muslims and Islam[...] Full story
Do nations have psychological processes - even Freudian processes, such as collective egos that can be injured, and repressed guilt feelings that can well up from the collective unconscious - just as individuals do? I believe that they do[...] Full story
They know it in Paris, Rome and Madrid. There is a big security hole to the south of Europe, the existence of which is confirmed by ongoing hostage crises involving citizens from France, Italy and Spain. The hostages are being held by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which has celebrated its third anniversary with a wave of kidnappings[...] Full story
The Copenhagen Climate Change Conference was an unmitigated disaster for the European Union. Instead of the EU claiming center stage, as its leaders assumed it would, the key actors were the United States, Brazil, South Africa, India and China. Indeed, when the accord was reached, the EU not even in the room. Copenhagen exposed the demise of Europe not only as a global power, but even as a global arbiter[...] Full story
Just when there seemed to be a consensus inside Israel concerning a two-state solution to the conflict with the Palestinians, we seem to be in danger of losing it altogether. The growing number of settlement-related facts on the ground, the harder it is to make a clean territorial cut, evacuate hundreds of thousands of settlers and demarcate a border of ethnic and national separation[...] Full story
As Palestinians press the international community to live up to its commitment to ensuring the establishment of an independent Palestine alongside Israel, conversation is intensifying about the character of this new state. In their own interest, Palestinians should buck the regional trend toward religious politics and ensure, from the outset, that it is firmly and irrevocably a secular state[...] Full story
"A pox on both your houses" may be an appropriate individual response to frustration with the political candidates on offer in an election. But it is a dangerous sentiment for governments to hold. Choice is the essence of governance, and to abstain from it - for whatever reason - is to shirk responsibility. But that seems to be the stance of the entire West[...] Full story
