The short-term prospects for democracy in Iraq are mixed at best. Yet there are things we can do to improve the odds. By Hoover national fellows Chappell Lawson and Strom C. Thacker.

Embedding reporters in military units reduced the “cynicism, general distrust, and enmity” that had marked relations between the Pentagon and the press for three decades. Hoover associate director Jeffrey C. Bliss on the first new approach to relations between the military and the media since Vietnam.SIDEBAR: Journalists and War

Political tensions between Europe and the United States notwithstanding, the “New Europe” is more American than ever. By Timothy Garton Ash.

Why the stakes for George Bush’s “liberty doctrine” couldn’t be higher. By Michael McFaul.

North Korea’s determination to develop nuclear weapons is the greatest threat the United States now faces. Hoover fellow Alice Lyman Miller explains how—and why—the Bush administration must respond.

The nation’s leading proponents of education reform met recently at a Hoover Institution conference in Washington to address two critical questions: How bad are our schools—and how can we fix them? A report by Hoover media fellow Tom Bethell.

How the language police have gained control of our students’ textbooks. By Diane Ravitch.

How can we fix the nation’s health care system? By giving it a dose of the free market. By Scott W. Atlas.

How FDR almost brought democracy to Iran. By Abbas Milani.

During the decade following the fall of communism, Russia became mired in poverty and crime. Hoover fellow David Satter explains what went wrong.

A Cold War warrior talks about his first nine decades. Interview by Kathryn Jean Lopez.