On July 28, Ollanta Humala was inaugurated as the 94th president of Peru. The victory did not come easily; he beat Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of former president Alberto Fujimori, by less then 2 percent of the vote. Further, Humala had to overcome baggage from his previous attempts for the presidency, most recently in 2006, … Read more
After a last-minute agreement with congressional leaders this August, President Obama signed into law the Budget Control Act, averting a debt ceiling breach. As part of the deal, the President consented to the creation of a bipartisan “super committee,” charged with slashing $1.5 trillion from America’s ever-swelling deficit. With Congress unable to resolve its fiscal differences, … Read more
The long-standing friendship between Turkey and Israel seemed once to offer testament to the idea that Arab-Israeli Conflict based not on religion or ethnicity, but on solvable political difference. Since 1949, when Turkey became the first Muslim nation to establish relations with Israel, the two counties have created a beneficial partnership. Yet sixty years of … Read more
For decades, investors were perfectly happy to part with their savings and allow Wall Street to operate comparatively unhindered, in exchange for high rates of return. The 2008 financial crisis changed all that. As America limped away from near economic Armageddon, government officials worked to address deficiencies in the financial system. Liberals clamored for strict … Read more
Nietzsche once said that all “great philosophy” takes the form of “involuntary and unconscious autobiography.” Philosophers try to give us Truth, he said, but in the process, they betray their vantage points, their specifics fears, their peculiar hopes. “To understand how the abstrusest metaphysical assertions of a philosopher have been arrived at,” Nietzsche continues, “first … Read more
American Neoconservatism Jean-Francois Drolet 256 pp. Columbia University Press. $30. Jean-François Drolet’s American Neoconservatism, a concise blend of political theory, intellectual history, and contemporary politics, marks one of those rare occurrences of highly relevant academic literature. Drolet’s aim in the work is to challenge the neoconservative hearkening for a moral, united America by uncovering the … Read more
“Pass this bill!” So exclaimed President Obama this September, as he proposed a plan to shore up the American economy. Facing weak job growth, ailing manufacturing, and a housing sector still in the doldrums, the President offered a package of tax cuts and spending increases, which he asserted would kick-start recovery. In his emphasis of … Read more
Since Libya’s founding in 1951, world leaders and political scientists alike have struggled to envision democracy in the dictatorial stronghold. Civil society has proved chronically weak, the authoritarian government strong, and middle-class yearnings for socioeconomic equality essentially nonexistent. However, in the past year, a grassroots rebellion erupted, defying many doubters, and culminating in the overthrow … Read more
Over the past several decades, campaign expenditures have steadily increased, culminating with a shattering $5.3 billion price tag for the 2008 election. But perhaps more startling is the fact that independent expenditures, the money spent by non-party organizations often funded by wealthy donors and corporations, actually increased during the 2010 midterm election. Typically, without the … Read more
Two years ago on a family vacation to India, our taxi was pulled over by a policeman demanding to see the driver’s license. The policeman took the proffered license and told the driver to come to a Delhi police station the next day to retrieve it and sort the matter out. We drove off, my … Read more