Remembering history is crucial to understanding the present. Its lessons can be ignored or badly played, but a knowledge of history helps steer us away from exaggerated, immediate conclusions anchored in the flow of the quotidian. European integration provides a... Continue Reading →
The self-labeled Islamic State has always been a mystery to Americans. The group has built itself into a vicious warfighting machine, but from the beginning, the joy its fighters take in beheading hostages, prisoners, and captured civilians has been incomprehensible.... Continue Reading →
The feeling is growing in the international commentariat that the Islamic State may win: That the group will continue to gain territory in Syria and Iraq and will consolidate a permanent government, a state ensconced in the Islamic caliphate its... Continue Reading →
There is a larger context that must be considered if we are to understand the struggle with the Islamic State for control of Ramadi. That context is geographical in part and involves the group's control over Fallujah and Mosul, its... Continue Reading →
America's global influence is in decline; so say numerous politicians, policy intellectuals, and academics. But there are two kinds of decline - absolute and relative. The former stems from a loss of strength, while the latter accomodates the rise of... Continue Reading →
On Monday, April 27, the Brooklyn Nets played the Atlanta Hawks in an NBA basketball first-round playoff game at the Barclays Center, which is located at the monstrous Atlantic Avenue intersection of subway lines in Brooklyn and the former Atlantic... Continue Reading →
Marine Le Pen will never be president of France. But if the French political balance moves further toward the fringes in the next decade, her National Front (FN) could end up as a necessary partner in any right-wing coalition. In... Continue Reading →
GETT: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem is a small-bore, low-budget film about marriage and divorce in Israel. The action takes place almost entirely in two rooms, a Jerusalem Bet Din (Rabbinical Court) and its waiting room, accommodations that look like... Continue Reading →
French country-wide local elections will occur next week in which president François Hollande risks another disavowal by the people. Marine Le Pen’s nationalist National Front party will probably win the most votes as it did in European Parliament elections last... Continue Reading →
Tiersky's Viewpoint 