"To endure in the 21st century," Joffe concludes, "this hegemon must soften the hard edge of its power with the world's consent. Otherwise the 'cittie upon a hill' will be a high, but lonely place." Or as Jesus says in the Gospel of Mark, "If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all."

Such sentiments are beautiful, moving, and even true to a degree. But they leave tough questions unanswered.

Foreign Affairs - Through Our Friends' Eyes -- Defending and Advising the Hyperpower - Walter Russell Mead

If you didn't laugh at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, the bloggers insist, you're a White House lackey

Was Stephen Colbert Funny?

A guide to the U.S. military’s future in Iraq

Hunkering Down

A monograph, scanned as PDF.

Curing Analytic Pathologies: Pathways to Improved Intelligence Analysis

Mark Bowden puts the Iranian hostage crisis in perspective.

Radical Islam's Eruption

Colbert is no stranger to the comedic potential of the nation's capital. He has interviewed more than a dozen unsuspecting members of Congress for his show's weekly "Better Know a District" segment. A selection of some of Colbert's finer exchanges ...

The Colbert Rapport

Jane Jacobs, the writer and thinker who brought penetrating eyes and ingenious insight to the sidewalk ballet of her own Greenwich Village street and came up with a book that challenged and changed the way people view cities, died yesterday in Toronto, where she moved in 1968. She was 89.

Jane Jacobs, Social Critic Who Redefined and Championed Cities, Is Dead at 89

The Central Intelligence Agency has dismissed a senior career officer for disclosing classified information to reporters, including material for Pulitzer Prize-winning articles in The Washington Post about the agency's secret overseas prisons for terror suspects, intelligence officials said Friday.

C.I.A. Fires Senior Officer Over Leaks

"Everything is miserable."

The unemployed pass their time smoking tobacco at a teahouse. Many in Iran turn to opium.

While the world focuses on Iran's nuclear ambitions, Iranians focus on the unmet aspirations of the two-thirds of the population that is younger than 30. Nearly three decades after a revolution that swept aside a monarchist system grounded in privilege, the typical Iranian has seen average income shrink under a religious government that has cultivated an elite of its own atop a profoundly dysfunctional economy.

The 80 percent of the population working in the private sector struggles mightily to make a living in the 20 percent of the economy that is not controlled by the government. The end product is a frustration edging into resentment that informs every private conversation with ordinary Iranians and frames every public issue.

As Iran Presses Its Ambitions, Its Young See Theirs Denied

Bearing "true faith" to the Constitution requires military personnel to speak out, regardless of the cost, when they think our civilian leaders have gone beyond the pale. Both our democracy and the lives of the soldiers who fight in our name depend on it. If officers remain silent when our military policies go terribly wrong, there's little the rest of us can do to set things right again.

A 4-star defense of the republic