The United States & Iran: An Alliance of Convenience

Surprised? Friday night (June 13) on the Charlie Rose television program, Richard Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, laid out a case for the United States and Iran to work together to fight back ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) in Iraq. Saturday, Iranian president Hassan Rouhani publicly announced that […]

The Kindness of Strangers

The story of my days as a guest of Canada, which began the morning of 9/11, when I was flying from London to Atlanta. It was originally published in the U.S. and the U.K. on the first anniversary of the attack.

Wise U.S. Foreign Policy Begins at Home

Wise U.S. Foreign Policy Begins at Home It’s no secret that the United States faces critical policy choices at home and abroad and that a disabled political process in Washington lacks the skill to find wise ways ahead in either area. In addition, a widespread lack of understanding exists among the American public about the […]

Stay Home, America; Get Your Own House in Order

I’ve been extremely busy for months with The Wisdom Project, including long hours on the new book. There’s a lot I’ve wanted to post, and probably should have, but “eight days a week” still remains in the la la land of Beatles lore. So it saves me a lot of time when someone else not […]

Obama and Christie: A Parable for Our Country?

Obama and Christie: A Parable for Our Country? By Charles Strohmer and Kenny Woodhull The day after hurricane Sandy devastated coastal New Jersey, Barack Obama and Chris Christie met and blew some minds. The sight of President and New Jersey Governor refusing to play politics with Sandy irritated some on the far right and far […]

Smart Power or Wise Power?

Time magazine’s recent cover story on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and “smart power” joins a growing consensus, at home and abroad, that U.S. foreign policy has softened considerably in recent years, therefore the world really ought to once again accept American leadership. But is this shift directed toward increased cooperation for the international common […]

Jesus, Political Wisdom, and Human Flourishing

Is President Obama’s “worldview” Christian? Forget about pointing the finger. How consistently do we ourselves see political life through the eyes of Jesus? How much of our political wisdom, to put it in the words of Colossians 2:8, depends on the basic principles of this world rather than on a philosophy based on Christ? A […]

American Evangelicals

Many prominent Evangelicals have begun to decry publicly the rigid, sectarian fundamentalism of the religious right and to call for profoundly increased interfaith dialogue and wiser approaches to U.S.-Mideast relations.

First published in the Turkish Daily News, July 7, 2008.