The Meaning of Life and Death (in Politics)

Irrational! How else can we explain the conducts of Putin, Netanyahu, Maduro, Jammeh, Kim Jong-un, Tsipras and ISIS? But to understand...

Living on the Edge: Israel, ISIS and the West

I had left Jerusalem, my hometown, and Israel, my homeland, before, but this time was more painful, because it was much easier. Two years...

Self-Determination, Redux? Russia's Crimea and the Global Crisis of Legitimacy

The West could have held the upper moral hand in the Crimean crisis, but chose not to. In his annexation speech (March 18, 2014),...

A Rebellious Greengrocer: The Suicide that Kindled the Arab Spring

When the leader of Czechoslovakia’s 1989 “Velvet Revolution” and its former president, Vaclav Havel died last month, many eulogies were...

What Is the Arab Third Estate? Nationalism in the Arab Spring

On July 1, 1798, just before disembarking on the shores of Alexandria — in what is often depicted as the moment when the West, indeed ...