Archive for International Relations

Care for the Cradle of Christianity

Several months ago I spent an evening with a dozen Christian friends in a home near Knoxville, Tennessee for dinner and conversation. We spent part of the time talking about the plight of the two-thousand-year-old Christian communities in Iraq and Syria that have been deliberately devastated by the so-called Islamic State (ISIS militants), who are […]

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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 […]

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US Military Intervention in Syria is Wrong

US military intervention in Syria is wrong, but President Obama has a rare moment to become an historic statesman. It’s now or never. Here’s why. Read the article here.

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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.

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Remembering Benazir Bhutto

Today, August 20, 2013, nearly six years after the murder of Benazir Bhutto (twice Pakistan’s Prime Minister), General Pervez Musharraf (Pakistan’s military dictator at the time of Mrs. Bhutto’s death), has been indicted for her murder. If like me you feel her life is worth remembering…,

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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 […]

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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 […]

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“That war . . . almost a kind of ideal”

“How did we, as a society, lose the ability to formulate questions about the feasibility of a political alternative? How did it happen that a person who suggests a nonviolent solution is the delusional one, the traitor, and the one who calls for the leveling of Gaza is the true patriot? How did peace become […]

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