March 24th, 2009
Press the reset button. Is there any phrase more enticing in the modern lexicon? We all know what it means: Press the reset button, watch your computer reboot, and presto! A nice, clean screen appears, and you start again from scratch. Read on »
March 17th, 2009
“America is a shining city upon a hill whose beacon light guides freedom-loving people everywhere.”
–Ronald Reagan, 1974, echoing John Winthrop, 1630
From the earliest days of our republic, Americans have been drawn to the idea of their nation as different, exceptional, an example for others. Sometimes that view has been shared by outsiders, who really did strive to be guided by our “beacon light,” and sometimes not. Never mind: Read on »
March 3rd, 2009
“Crisis Threatens the Idea of One Europe.” “Members Sharply Split Over Economic Action.” “Europe’s Family Squabbles.” Reading the headlines in recent days, one would be tempted to conclude that the European Union, which has so long promulgated an earnest ideology of ever-closer, ever-greater European economic cooperation, is in trouble — and one would be right. Read on »
February 24th, 2009
“We pretty much know what they’re going to say.” — Hillary Clinton, on the Chinese reaction to discussions of human rights, religious freedom and Tibet Read on »
February 17th, 2009
Some think the New Deal rescued America from economic crisis in the 1930s. Others argue the opposite. But whatever their ideology, and whatever their credentials, most of the pundits, historians and economists who debate the Great Depression agree about one thing: Whatever may have caused the crisis, protectionism, trade barriers and, yes, the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, helped to ensure that it lasted as long as it did. Read on »
February 10th, 2009
President Obama wants to send 30,000 American soldiers; the Germans have promised more money; the Poles have just taken charge of a province; even the Dutch are thinking of keeping some troops on the ground. Which is all very well, as long as they all realize that the long-term solution to Afghanistan’s security doesn’t lie in soldiers sent by Washington or Berlin Read on »
February 5th, 2009
This column is arriving late this week. It is arriving late because, among other things, my flight out of London’s Heathrow Airport on Monday was canceled. Not delayed, canceled. So were almost all the other flights out of Heathrow. This stunning disruption at one of the world’s busiest transport hubs was not caused by a terrorist attack or a catastrophic computer failure. It was caused by five inches of wet, rapidly melting snow. Read on »
January 27th, 2009
You’ve probably heard stories of swooning foreign reporters, breathless international coverage, fawning headlines in many languages — and I can confirm that, yes, it’s all true. Read on »
January 20th, 2009
If one were searching for an appropriate metaphor — and, on days like this, one is always searching for a metaphor — it would be hard to do better than US Airways Flight 1549 and its safe crash-landing in the Hudson River last week. This extraordinary event was, if you like, the anti-Sept. 11: A plane hurtled into Manhattan, but its pilots, instead of aiming for a skyscraper and killing thousands, aimed at the river, and saved the lives of all 155 people on board. Read on »
January 13th, 2009
Like every continent, Europe has its rituals. In the spring, the storks return to the Low Countries from their winter nests in Africa. In the autumn, the French return to Paris from their beaches in the south. And in the winter, the Russians threaten to cut off the natural gas supplies to Ukraine. Read on »