COVERS SECTION: The Obama Doctrine: Does America Have a Foreign Policy? The Reset with Russia: Two years of “da” to a new partnership. By Joshua Lipson. Obama’s Blank Check: The tone of America’s national security policy has changed, but the substance is similar. By Peter Bozzo and Henry Shull. Remaking America’s Image: Leveraging Obama’s popularity … Read more
Julian Assange, the editor of WikiLeaks, has irrevocably changed the course of international affairs for the rest of our lifetimes, if not for generations to come – and not for the better. Recently, the New York Times, along with four other international news outlets, published details of leaked U.S. government documents obtained by the WikiLeaks … Read more
David Brook’s column on Wikileaks is a pretty good example of how the mainstream press has misread the organization’s intentions. Brooks concludes that Wikileaks will “damage the global conversation” of diplomats: The WikiLeaks dump will probably damage the global conversation. Nations will be less likely to share with the United States. Agencies will be tempted … Read more
2010 has been a banner year for WikiLeaks. Although the organization was relatively well known before this year for its leaks regarding police killings in Kenya, WikiLeaks took center stage in the international spotlight with its release of 92,000 Afghan war documents, 400,000 documents on the Iraqi war, and the recent release of 250,000 documents … Read more
By strange designs of fate and family, the two places I’ve flown to most are southern California and Israel. And although the two occupy dramatically different places in the average American’s cultural inventory, I always find myself grouping them together. After all, they share what my home state in the American Northeast lacks: a beautiful … Read more
It was interesting to see this argument for an admissions lottery advanced earnestly; I think I’ve seen a similar example somewhere advanced by critics of luck egalitarianism as a kind of reductio ad absurdum. (“Imagine what the admissions letter would say: Congratulations, you’ve won the lottery…?”) But that makes this project all the more useful … Read more
This month, the Fed began their second round of quantitative easing, a $600 billion that seeks to pump liquidity into the economy. While the policy has its critics, its defenders drew justification from a compelling source – the story of Japan’s ruined economy – where fiscal inaction had plunged the country deeper into a deflationary … Read more
In today’s Crimson, Dylan Matthews has a provocative column arguing that Harvard ought to randomize its admissions process. Dylan claims that Harvard’s current admissions system entrenches existing inequalities—including inequalities of talent. Talent, Dylan thinks, is pretty much beyond our control. Channeling John Rawls, Dylan assumes that success in life shouldn’t be “contingent” on “arbitrary factors” … Read more
In 2003, Columbia University, a private university in New York City, announced plans to build a new 17-acre campus in Manhattanville, West Harlem. This, it explained, was necessary to maintain its role as a leading educational and research hub. Moreover, the university emphasized the economic benefits that expansion would bring to the community. But, this … Read more
I’m not exactly known for my warm feelings towards the Harvard Crimson, but I’ll defend their decision to run an article about the allegations that are swirling around the recent Harvard Republican Club elections. (Brief summary: One of the candidates for president of that club withdrew after he was accused by another candidate of forging … Read more