For several years now, scholars have argued that the world is experiencing a “democratic recession.” They have noted that the movement of countries toward...
For those few people left who still believe Donald Trump is unconventional but canny, that there is a method to the madness, the revelations of last week...
Donald Trump campaigned as someone who wanted to get America out of the Middle East. But he also cast himself as a tough guy, and his initial instincts in...
Listen closely. That sound you heard at last Wednesday’s joint news conference between the presidents of the European Commission and the United States was...
Donald Trump’s news conference last Monday in Helsinki was the most embarrassing performance by an American president I can think of. And his preposterous...
President Donald Trump’s trip to Europe is being portrayed by both him and his critics as revolutionary. He tells us that he single-handedly and miraculously...
In recent weeks, you might have heard about two seemingly unrelated issues that are actually quite connected. In New York, Mayor Bill de Blasio signaled his...
“America will remain the world’s dominant power in the 21st century only if it is the dominant Pacific power,” the late Lee Kuan Yew often said to me. Lee,...
With their successes last week in the California primaries, Democrats are increasingly optimistic about their prospects for the midterm elections. But they...
The Republican Party is facing dim prospects in the upcoming midterm elections. But it doesn’t have to be that way, says Steve Bannon, the chief ideologist of...
President Donald Trump’s recurring criticism of his predecessor is that he just didn’t know how to make a deal. “Obama is not a natural deal maker,” he...
Two weeks ago was Teacher Appreciation Week, and I intended to write on the subject, but a more newsy topic intervened. That’s an apt metaphor for what is...
Jeb Bush said Donald Trump would be a “chaos president.” And last week, Trump lived up to the billing, choosing to defy virtually the entire world, including...
Emmanuel Macron came, saw and conquered Washington last week. But the French president is trying to do something much harder than generate buzz and goodwill....
The most remarkable parts of James Comey’s memoir are not about Donald Trump. We already knew most of the interesting revelations, and some of the others are...
Paul Ryan’s decision to retire from Congress is being interpreted as a sign by many that the Republicans will do poorly in the midterm elections. That may be...
Ever since the departure of top advisers Gary Cohn and H.R. McMaster, it does seem as if the Trump White House has gotten more chaotic, if that were possible....
By way of explanation for some of President Trump’s bizarre foreign policy moves, we are often told that he is “unconventional” and that this could well be an...
We might look back on 2017 as the last moment of unbridled faith and optimism in the technology industry. The revelations about Cambridge Analytica’s use of...
If confirmed as secretary of state, Mike Pompeo will arrive at a department that has been battered by proposed budget cuts, hollowed-out by resignations and...
The tussle over tariffs is the most significant political battle taking place in America right now – much broader than a dispute over steel and aluminum...
Amid the flurry of news about Hope Hicks and Jared Kushner and last week’s Trump reality show on guns, it would be easy to miss what’s happening in China. But...
A few weeks ago, the Economist Intelligence Unit published the 10th edition of its Democracy Index, a comprehensive ranking of nations that looks at 60...
There’s a lot to be optimistic about today. In almost every part of the world, economies are growing and war, poverty and disease are receding. But then there...
As the world’s attention turns briefly away from U.S. President Donald Trump and toward the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, it’s worth focusing not just on...