Iraq

Why We Must Stay
Why the war in Iraq is not like the war in Vietnam—and why the present conflict must not be permitted to end the way the former conflict ended. By Victor Davis Hanson.

Cowboys and Indians
Want the American troops out of Iraq now? Be careful what you wish for. By Niall Ferguson.

The War on Terror

Bush Country
In the Arab world, there is something new and exhilarating in the air—a debate on the meaning of freedom. By Fouad Ajami.

National Security

Liberty First, Democracy Later
The best way to promote democracy abroad? By first promoting liberty. By Peter Berkowitz.

The Danger in “Fixing” the CIA
Despite opinion to the contrary, our nation’s intelligence services are not broken, nor can they be “fixed” simply by reshuffling the CIA’s organizational chart. The true strengths—and limitations—of our country’s spy agencies. By Richard A. Posner.

Iran

The Passive Revolution
Hard-liners may have gained a near stranglehold over the political and judicial sectors in Iran, but there is one critical sector they do not control—the people. By Jared A. Cohen and Abbas Milani.

Korea

How Long?
When will the regime of Kim Jong Il finally collapse? By Charles Wolf Jr.

Russia

The Latest Autocrat
The best description of Vladimir Putin? “Stalin lite.” By Arnold Beichman.

Europe

Chirac’s Last Stand?
This past spring voters in France and the Netherlands rejected the new constitution for the European Union—and dealt a stinging rebuff to French president Jacques Chirac. Can Chirac recover? By Patrick Chamorel.

Britain

The Nine Lives of Tony Blair
Tony Blair’s political career has survived more upheavals than that of any politician since Bill Clinton. The question in Britain at the moment? How many of his nine lives Blair has left. By Gerald A. Dorfman.

Latin America

The Left Turn
Throughout Latin America during the last five years, leftist politicians have unseated conservative leaders. What accounts for this radical change? ¡Es la economía, estúpida! By Stephen Haber.

The Democracy Problem
In Latin America these days, democracy isn’t working very well. Indeed, it almost never has. Why? By William Ratliff.

Education

Free to Choose
Half a century after he first proposed school vouchers, Milton Friedman, the “Father of School Choice,” is still on the case.

A Million-Dollar Affair
A tribute to Milton Friedman. By William F. Buckley Jr.

Flexibility Is Not What Is Needed
Three years after the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act, the Bush administration is being pressed by school administrators, teachers unions, and politicians to ease up on enforcement. With this many critics, NCLB must be doing something right. By John E. Chubb.

Ethnomathematics
Political correctness hits the math classroom. By Diane Ravitch.

All Deliberate Speed?
The Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education ruling in 1954 was supposed to have improved educational opportunities for minorities. Yet in many ways the educational chasm between minority and non-minority schoolchildren is as great now as it was then. By Clint Bolick.

Diversity: The Impossible Dream?
Creating diversity on America’s college campuses is a noble goal. Achieving diversity is another matter. By John H. Bunzel.

Medicare

Rx for Medicare
If you think the Social Security system is in bad shape, take a look at Medicare. How to fix one of the worst problems facing the nation. By Thomas J. Healey and Robert Steel.

Regulation

The Wrong War
A sensible approach to the drug problem. By David R. Henderson.

Hurricane Katrina

To New Orleans, a Few Words from California
In the wake of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina, former California governor Pete Wilson offers advice and encouragement to the citizens of New Orleans.

Why We Lacked Resilience
How could one storm score a hit on every wallet in the country? By Henry I. Miller.

Economics

China’s Quiet Revolution
Why China’s more flexible exchange rates may be a boon to the global economy. By John B. Taylor.

Profile: Edwin Meese III

To Preserve and Protect
“If Ed Meese is not a good man,” Ronald Reagan once said, “there are no good men.” A profile of a good man. By Lee Edwards.

In Memoriam: James B. Sto

Teacher and Hero
Remembering a hero for our time. By Jeff Bliss.

Fair Winds and Following Seas
The world has lost a truly great man. By Scott Tait.

History and Culture

Is Anti-Semitism Generic?
What do Jews have in common with Armenians, Ibos, and Marwaris? An historically similar pattern of economic and social roles—and of persecution. By Thomas Sowell.

Who Could Have Asked for More?
Sixty years after the end of World War II, Peter Duignan reflects on what arose from the ashes.

Hoover Archives

Vinegar Joe and the Generalissimo
During World War II, personal relations between Chiang Kai-shek, the Chinese Nationalist leader, and General Joseph Stilwell, America’s top military adviser to China, grew famously acrimonious. The strained relationship, some have argued, may have had dire consequences for the Nationalists, who lost the Chinese civil war to the Communists in 1949.

Newly opened documents in the Hoover Institution Archives of T. V. Soong, one of Chiang’s closest aides, shed new light on the matter. Chiang, the documents show, considered firing Stilwell as early as 1942—and had the blessing of top American officials to do so—but ultimately chose not to. Had Stilwell been replaced, might history have been different? Tai-Chun Kuo, Hsiao-Ting Lin, and Ramon H. Myers consider one of history’s most intriguing “what-ifs.”