“I dedicate this award to all the people who have endured slavery and the 21 million people who still suffer slavery today.”– Director Steve McQueen, on accepting the Oscar for 12 Years a Slave. At last month’s Academy Awards, Steven ...
Why the most recent temper tantrum of the explosive young dictator of North Korea is not a big deal, and why he still won’t be getting what he wants You can keep screaming and kicking. Hell, cry your heart out ...
Do you know that Norway’s King can legally dismiss the Norwegian government with a simple stroke of his pen? In a world where international norms of democracy seem to reign supreme, it is easy to forget that 44 nations ultimately ...
Over the past few centuries, China has suffered its fair share of embarrassments. From the Opium Wars to the Great Leap Forward, its hailed position as the middle kingdom has been eroded time and again. Deeply engrained into the psyche ...
One year ago the reigning head of the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVII, did the unthinkable: he resigned. With a troubled tenure defined by criticism and controversy, Benedict cited deteriorating psychical and mental health for his departure. It was the ...
In early June, newly-elected Iranian president Hassan Rouhani, a moderate in comparison to his hard-line predecessor Mouhmad Ahmadinejad,emerged as a symbol of hope for a citizenry burdened by a catastrophic financial crisis brought on by Western sanctions. Prior to beginning ...
Where does the Internet come from? Think about this question for a moment. While the answer may seem obvious, the John Q. Public will likely stumble through an explanation of satellite technology and “Wi-Fi clouds” as though the Internet were ...
This past week, Ukraine experienced the worst period of violence in its post-Soviet history and a stunning political development as President Yanukovych was forced out of power by the Ukrainian parliament. The cost of this political victory for the opposition ...
I recently had the pleasure of reading the transcript of General McRaven’s address to the cadets at the United States Military Academy at West Point. A copy can be found here. Early in his speech, while reciting a Plutarchian litany ...
Following international headlines as of late, it would appear that the top story coming out of France concerns President François Hollande’s personal (read: intimate) life. Interestingly, none of the major American and British news agencies or papers mentioned France’s Jour ...