No one ever said that nation-building was going to be easy. By Michael McFaul.

Hoover fellow Arnold Beichman on the challenges confronting Paul Bremer, America’s envoy to Iraq.

In the aftermath of pro-democracy protests in Iran this summer, some 4,000 people were arrested. Political reformers and religious hard-liners are now at a standoff. Who will prevail? By Abbas Milani.

Despite an enormous inflow of foreign aid, most African countries today are poorer than they were a generation ago. What’s gone wrong? By Hoover fellows Stephen Haber, Douglass C. North, and Barry R. Weingast.

It is time for Jacques Chirac and Dominique de Villepin to be helped off their high horse. By Timothy Garton Ash.

What does Harry Potter have that school textbooks don’t? By Diane Ravitch.

In June the Supreme Court issued a definitive—if narrow—ruling that permits the consideration of race in university admissions. This may have been bad law—but was it a bad decision? By Robert Zelnick.

Whatever its critics may claim, globalization isn’t just for fat cats and multinational corporations. By Gary S. Becker.

As it confronts one of the worst problems of homelessness in the United States, San Francisco has been fighting over new ways to get people off its streets. By Hoover public affairs fellow Jeffrey Jones.

A speechwriter for six years in the Reagan White House, Hoover fellow Peter Robinson reflects on the place in history of the 40th chief executive.