Changing Tough Hearts & Minds

Is rational dialogue with a terrorist possible? More significantly, can the mind of a person committed to terrorism be changed? There are some surprising conclusions coming from the field.

Benazir Bhutto

Two months before she braved returning to her homeland and was murdered there, I had the opportunity to hear Benazir Bhutto address a group at the Council on Foreign Relations. Twice a former Prime Minister of Pakistan, she struck me not so much as a politician but as a leader with a clear, bold message. No one listening could misunderstand her vision for a democratic Pakistan or her keen grasp both of the military dictatorship and of the religious extremists who stood in the way of implementing democracy.

Obama & McCain

The results of the November 4, 2008 U.S. presidential election will affect a globalised planet like never before. This article looks past the candidates sound-bites to imagine how each one, and his phalanx of advisors, might engage the wider world. The conclusions may surprise you.

A slightly shorter version of this article was first published in Third Way, September 2008.

New Political Religions (Review)

The Pneumopathology of Modern Terrorism

New Political Religions, or An Analysis of Modern Terrorism, Barry Cooper (University of Missouri Press, 2004; 242 pp)

Of the many good books that have been released in recent years on the so-called war on terrorism, I’ve discovered helpful analyses ranging from technique to strategy to ideology to religion. Cooper’s insightful book on the pneumopathology of modern terrorism helped me to see even more clearly.

Memo to the President

MEMORANDUM TO: President Barack Obama
DATE: July 7, 2009
SUBJECT: Your Middle East policy: refuse to be drawn