Category: Opinion

Here in the United States, in the game of baseball — the “national game,” as it’s sometimes called — there exists a mysterious, almost magical impediment to winning annual professional championships for one of the thirty major league teams, the … Read more

The author discusses why U. S. public diplomacy is a “mess” and how to clean it up. Mr. Helmke is a senior professional staff member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. These remarks were made at the Public Diplomacy Institute … Read more

The author, a long-time and close observer of the Middle Eastern scene, examines the effect of the construction of the barrier between Israel and the Arab Palestinian territories. He does not reach an optimistic conclusion. — Ed. Israeli Prime Minister … Read more

Colonel Smith argues that Iraq, unlike Vietnam, is not a quagmire, but looms instead as a black hole which he sees as an ever-expanding funnel into which human lives, human talent, and monetary resources are being poured, never to be … Read more

The Origins of the SpeciesAssuredly no fault can be assigned to a U. S. Foreign Service officer if he or she hails from the northeastern United States, has an “old family” heritage and a comfortable financial situation, and holds a … Read more

The news people, both print and electronic, have a difficult task these days. There’s not much in the way of striking or significant developments on the foreign affairs front. Has everyone noticed the change in reporting content lately? The headlines … Read more

Middle Eastern Delusions For more than a century, Muslim clerics and scholars have issued scattered calls for a return to the glories of bygone days, calls that have become more focused in the past half century with the transition to … Read more

This old observer finds himself still, at this late writing, caught between two points of view: not fully committed either to launching a war in Iraq or to strong opposition under practically all circumstances. Not completely convinced that Saddam’s Iraq … Read more

General Sherman Indubitably Was RightNotwithstanding the oral historian Studs Terkel’s assessment of World War II from the American perspective, there simply is no such thing as a “good” war. By its very definition, waging war involves death and injury and … Read more

The following editorial comments were prepared by Amb. Bill Harrop, a retired senior career diplomat who participated in the assessment of Secretary of State Powell which he addresses. Amb. Harrop is a long-time member of the board of American Diplomacy … Read more

by Henry E. Mattox

by Henry E. Mattox

by Henry E. Mattox

by Henry E. Mattox

by Henry Mattox

by Henry E. Mattox

by Henry E. Mattox

by Henry E. Mattox

by Editor Henry E. Mattox

by Henry E. Mattox