The Future of Global Democracy
We’ve all become accustomed to essays and op-eds considering the future of democracy, written from 30,000 feet and with too few specifics and too many generalities. But democracy as practiced, lived,...
View ArticleThe Unraisable Issue
We Are Not One: A History of America’s Fight Over Israel by Eric Alterman • Basic Books • 2022 • 512 pages • $35 On the day I sat down to write this review, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu...
View ArticleBeyond TikTok
Beijing’s Global Media Offensive: China’s Uneven Campaign to Influence Asia and the World by Joshua Kurlantzick • Oxford University Press • 2022 • 560 pages • $30 Lawmakers in the United States and...
View ArticleThe Un-Statesman
I want to begin by saying something nice about Mike Pompeo: He has an absolutely gorgeous singing voice, a great booming baritone issuing from his barrel chest. I know this because he sat behind me and...
View ArticleWar Powers: We Must Do Better Than the Current Monarchism
American presidents have gathered too much power to take the country into war. Toward the end of the Trump Administration, a movement to transfer some of that power back to Congress appeared to be...
View ArticleClash of Identities
Three Worlds: Memoirs of an Arab-Jew by Avi Shlaim • Oneworld Publications • 2023 • 336 pages • $30 In his 1979 book, The Question of Palestine, the academic, literary critic, and Palestinian-American...
View ArticleThe Arab World Blame Game
What Really Went Wrong: The West and the Failure of Democracy in the Middle East by Fawaz A. Gerges • Yale University Press • 2024 • 336 pages • $28 The 2010 Arab Spring was a moment of real hope for...
View ArticleThe Reactionary Bind
The Reactionary Spirit: How America’s Most Insidious Political Tradition Swept the World by Zack Beauchamp • PublicAffairs • 2024 • 272 pages • $30 In 1955, the political theorist Louis Hartz...
View ArticleDonald Trump Re-Meets the World
A s Donald Trump prepares to once again assume the presidency, the stakes for U.S. foreign policy, global governance, and democratic movements could not be higher. This is not the same Trump, nor is it...
View ArticleCreatures of the Swamp
Foreign Agents: How American Lobbyists and Lawmakers Threaten Democracy Around the World by Casey Michel • St. Martin’s Press • 2024 • 368 pages • $30 When I came to Washington, D.C. as a reporter in...
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