Reconstructing Iraq as a responsible and lawful state will represent the most costly and formidable task the United States has taken on in decades. By Hoover fellow Larry Diamond.

Post-war Iraq is a tinderbox. How can we prevent a conflagration? By Hoover fellow Michael McFaul.

France and Germany have clearly put the United States on notice that they cannot be counted on in an emergency. We should face this fact soberly and without animus. By Hoover fellow Russell A. Berman.

The Hoover Institution’s Koret Task Force on K–12 Education has just issued a comprehensive assessment of American public education. Its conclusion? America’s schools continue to fail our children. By Hoover fellow Chester E. Finn Jr.

Why should we support school choice programs? Because they work. By Hoover fellow John E. Chubb.

Welfare reform has been an unqualified success. Why? Because the federal government let the individual states decide how best to deal with their welfare recipients. Now some members of Congress are calling for more federal control over state welfare programs. Hoover fellows Jeffrey Jones and Thomas MaCurdy explain why we should leave well enough alone.

SIDEBAR to Soviet Dissent and the Cold War

Which global players have power today—and which are likely to acquire it in the coming decades? By Niall Ferguson.

How the Bush administration has adapted to a post–Cold War and post–September 11 world. By Hoover fellow Ken Jowitt.

Can Russia embrace democracy under a leader who doesn’t believe in it? By Hoover fellow Michael McFaul.

On the 50th anniversary of the death of Joseph Stalin, Hoover fellow Arnold Beichman recalls the atrocities Stalin perpetrated—and the allure he held for craven Western intellectuals.