In early 1979, I was sent to Iran to report on the rebellion then underway. I was woefully ignorant of Iranian history, politics and theology. Published December 29, 2020
"Build Back Better" was Joe Biden's campaign slogan. How different is that, really, from "Make America Great Again"? Both BBB and MAGA suggest the need for restoration, for reversing deterioration and decline, for fixing what's broken. Published December 22, 2020
We are now in that quadrennial season when Washington wonks spend an inordinate amount of time attempting to divine the policies of the next administration based on the individuals named as presidential advisers. Published December 15, 2020
How much does the average Palestinian know about the Jewish refugees from Arab countries? My guess: very little. Published December 8, 2020
China has been waging a Cold War against America for years. The current administration has recognized that reality. Published December 1, 2020
The assassins were professionals and they had planned carefully. On Aug. 7, 2020, around 9 o'clock on a warm evening, they rode a motorcycle down a street in Pasdaran, a well-off Tehran neighborhood. Published November 24, 2020
With the defeat of the Axis Power in 1945, the United States emerged as the strongest military, economic and cultural power on earth. Published November 17, 2020
How consequential will it be if the French acquiesce, agreeing to carve out an exception to free speech in deference to Islamists? Very. Published November 10, 2020
Natan Sharansky was born Anatoly Borisovich Shcharansky in 1948 in Stalino, a grimy Ukrainian coal town renamed Donetsk following the death of the second Soviet dictator in 1953. Published November 3, 2020
Mr. Xi is pursuing not global leadership but global domination. His intention is to build a new illiberal international order, one with rules made in China, for China and enforced by China. Published October 20, 2020
Tyrants have learned to use high technology to spread disinformation while, in totalitarian countries, censors have become adept at repressing truthful information they find inconvenient. Published October 13, 2020
There was a simplicity to the Cold War. Free peoples, and those who aspired to that status, were threatened by communism, a totalitarian ideology aggressively propagated by the Soviet Union, an expansionist empire. Published October 6, 2020
Before there was a Palestinian-Israeli conflict, there was an Arab-Israeli conflict. Last week, on the White House lawn, that older conflict was put to rest. Published September 22, 2020
The 75th session of the U.N. General Assembly is underway. Publicists are calling it "historic." I suspect you're thinking: Is this exciting or what? Published September 15, 2020
The Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington were a wakeup call. They led a low-intensity armed conflict that, 19 years later, remains inconclusive. Published September 8, 2020
It was once thought probable, if not inevitable, that from the ashes of the U.S.S.R. would arise liberal democracies. But few Soviet republics have become real republics. Published September 1, 2020
Long before the blast, Lebanon had begun shattering, politically and economically. Its elites bear the blame, and street protests against them have raged for almost two years. Published August 25, 2020
Iran's rulers characterized what happened at the U.N. Security Council last week as a "heavy defeat for Washington," and I can't say they're wrong. Published August 18, 2020
The rulers of North Korea and China have found nefarious ways to limit speech critical of them, intimidating and manipulating what we might otherwise consider powerful and independent individuals in Hollywood, professional sports, and the news media. Published August 11, 2020
"The dissolution of the USSR was a time of hope in the West. Western thinking was, if not to integrate Russia fully, at least to ensure that it became a partner. By the mid-2000s, it was clear that this had not been successful." Published July 28, 2020
