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Afghan Expert Thomas Barfield on Bin Laden's Death

by David Austin Walsh

Thomas Barfield is professor of anthropology at Boston University and the author of Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History. I spoke to Professor Barfield by phone about the death of Osama bin Laden.

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 “The world is safer,” Mr. Obama said as he appeared at a White House ceremony bestowing the Medal of Honor to two soldiers killed in the Korean War. “It is a better place because of the death of Osama bin Laden.”

The Killing of Osama Bin Laden

by Deepak Tripathi

Ten years after the dreadful events of September 11, 2001, Osama bin Laden is dead.  His killing in a CIA operation in the Pakistani colonial city of Abbottabad, about thirty miles from the capital, Islamabad, brings closure for relatives of many thousands of victims of al Qaeda violence around the world.  It will be seen as ultimate justice for the man viewed as the chief perpetrator of international terrorism for two decades.  The sentiment is understandable, even justified.  However, there is a larger truth.

Osama's Spectacular Failure

by Gil Troy

Osama bin Laden died a spectacular failure. While his predecessor Yassir Arafat proved that terrorism can work, bin Laden proved terrorism’s limits.  Osama killed more people more flamboyantly than Arafat.  But, under Arafat, the Palestinians blasted their way onto the world’s agenda.  Osama’s nihilistic terrorism was so destructive it hurt his cause, miring Islamism in a bog of death and destructiveness.  Osama’s blood-splattered biography taught the world important lessons, including:  

Japan's Colonial Legacy in Korea Still Endures

by Mark Selden

At a time when territorial conflicts in East Asia repeatedly raise tensions between China and Japan (Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands), North and South Korea (the Northern Limit Line) and Japan-Russia (the Northern Islands/Kurils), it is worth recalling that disputes continue to simmer not only between long-time rivals, but also among allies.

Mourning China's Dead Ideals This May Fourth

by Lionel M. Jensen

The Fourth of May usually marks a day of celebration in China.  For the families of Ai Weiwei, Liu Xiabo, Liu Xiaoyuan, Gao Zhisheng, the hundreds who have vanished in the shadows of a government driven by fear, this year it is simply another painful day in the grim rite of awaiting word.  The date signals the national recollection of the May Fourth Incident, an event that ignited a joyous movement of university students and their teachers demanding an end to their country’s political weakness and the embrace of the modern ideals of democracy, gender equality, and science. 

More Pentagon Follies

by William L. O'Neill

China as Number One? Don’t Bet Your Bottom Dollar

by Tom Engelhardt

China's Religious Problem

by Thomas David DuBois

Some Thoughts on Ivy League Admissions—and Affirmative Action—for Donald Trump

by Mark Naison

Donald Trump’s recent comments that Barack Obama didn’t have the grades to get into Ivy League schools shows a profound ignorance of the admissions policies of those institutions.  According to Bowen, Shapiro et al. who thoroughly researched the admissions policies of elite universities in the U.S.

Understanding Post-Mubarak Egypt

by Daniel Pipes

As Egypt lurches into a new era, a look at its complexities and subtleties helps to understand the country's likely course. Some thoughts on key issues:

An Arab Spring for Women

by Shahin and Juan Cole

The “Arab Spring” has received copious attention in the American media, but one of its crucial elements has been largely overlooked: the striking role of women in the protests sweeping the Arab world. Despite inadequate media coverage of their role, women have been and often remain at the forefront of those protests. 

Henry Ford for President!

by Joseph Kip Kosek

The nation’s leading capitalist emerges as a surprise candidate for president.  His political views range from unknown to repulsive to incoherent, but he vaults to the top of early opinion polls.  He has that flair, that self-reliance, that je ne sais pas that set him apart in an undistinguished field.  The man, of course, is Henry Ford.  Long before Donald Trump burst into contention for the Republican nomination, Ford briefly became the most exciting prospect for the presidential election of 1924.

The Coming Palestinian Diplomatic Revolution

by Guy Laron

The clouds of smoke wafting over Libya, the gunshots heard in Syria’s main cities and the continuing unrest in Egypt and Bahrain, block from view one of the most momentous developments in the Arab-Israeli conflict.  After many years in which the Palestinians have tried intermittently bilateral talks with Israel and armed rebellion, they are now mastering the art of diplomacy.

Sam Houston, San Jacinto, and the Coming Civil War

by John Willingham

A Right Royal Wedding

by Charles Carlton

This Friday perhaps a billion people across the globe will watch the wedding of Prince William to Kate Middletown.  Why?

Washington on the Rocks

by Alfred W. McCoy and Brett Reilly

In one of history’s lucky accidents, the juxtaposition of two extraordinary events has stripped the architecture of American global power bare for all to see. Last November, WikiLeaks splashed snippets from U.S. embassy cables, loaded with scurrilous comments about national leaders from Argentina to Zimbabwe, on the front pages of newspapers worldwide. Then just a few weeks later, the Middle East erupted in pro-democracy protests against the region’s autocratic leaders, many of whom were close U.S.

The History of Families New and Long Lost: An American Compares Coat of Arms with Kate Middleton’s

by Pearl Duncan

Americans are following the royal wedding of Kate Middleton and Prince William for many details—the wedding dress, the hats the guest will wear, the couple’s romance and the pageantry of the royal event.  I am following the wedding with great curiosity, because I couldn’t wait to see the coat of arms Kate Middleton, whose family didn’t already have one, would be granted. 

A 50-Year Perspective—JFK, Richard Bissell, and the Bay of Pigs

by Howard Jones