Last month, I wrote that Religion and Democracy are a combination destined for conflict. Rel more...

Our own times seem so divided, so violent, that we cannot imagine that we experienced such more...

Anarchy is a fascinating and recurring political philosophy. Anarchists do not believe in government more...

Human beings, "homo sapiens," are thinking creatures. Unlike animals, who live in the moment more...

Lying has been with us since we learned to talk. It has had a bad reputation from the beginning of c more...

I am writing this on International Women?s Day, March 8, a holiday I remember well from its start in more...

Our last column explored the content of education today. This one will explore the structure more...

Populism refers to a range of political stances that emphasize the idea of "the people" and often ju more...

Our world has swung from a new passion for democracy at the end of the cold war to a pushbac more...

We have been taking a long look at the Supreme Court, how it has worked for the past half ce more...

September 30, 2022

Afghanistan, a weak, backward remote mountain and desert state in more...

The Afghan Disaster (1 of 2)

In August, the Taliban government in Afghanistan celebr more...

One of the most important elements of fair government, supported by the majority of the governed, is more...

Often, Congressional bipartisan hearings are painful to watch. Such hearings used to be much less po more...

What we now call the State Department began as Foreign Affairs, whose first Ambassadors, even before more...

What defines us as Americans is the Constitution. We are not one race, one gender, or only n more...

"Originalists" (conservatives who believe that we must follow everything that our fo more...

"Originalists" (conservatives who believe that we must follow everything that our fo more...

The January 6th Congressional hearings have provided us with an important new way to look at politic more...

The Republican "Base," the followers of Donald Trump, are scornful of "elites," by which the more...

The Republican Party has adopted an old chestnut, the fear that demographers have been predi more...

Faith has a place in human history?a mixed bag of good and bad consequences. Faith depends upon will more...

During our nation?s founding, western Europe, including England, had recently emerged from two centu more...

In Reviewing the Index of Democracies for 2022, we can see the difference between Total Democracies more...

Last week, we reviewed America?s dismal performance on the world list of democracies. We do more...

Two valuable non-partisan surveys track the standing of 166 sovereign states, 164 of them UN more...

We are so fixed on what Russia is doing to Ukraine that we are not watching China. American more...

Russia carries its history on its back. From the beginnings of the country identifiable as Russia, i more...

Thoughtful human beings have pondered on what form of government produces the most orderly and happi more...

Why do we need laws and punishments? Unfortunately, men are not angels. Although some do wha more...

Rule of law has always meant one thing: that wrongdoing has punishment. In antiquity, the pu more...

Folklore across the world tell tales of giants, something that seem fixed in the human psyche. The a more...

Good and Evil are biblical terms that make the secular among us uncomfortable. Most human be more...

April 22, 2022
Laina Farhat-Holzman
Pajaronian

Putin?s background was a more...

April 15, 2022
Laina Farhat-Holzman
Pajaronian

Ukraine is an old countr more...

April 8, 2022
Laina Farhat-Holzman
Pajaronian

Perhaps one-third of our more...

With a few exceptions, (such as the sunrise appears in the east, the earth is a globe, and the moon more...

Last week, we discussed a danger to Democracy: a flood of disinformation. Disinformation is more...

One of the most dangerous things facing representative government is that there must be a c more...

Russia specialists (historians, former ambassadors, intelligence operatives) seem to have some disag more...

Putin is a fascinating man. He is enjoying what he appears most hungry for: attention. Russi more...

Ukraine has been in the news for the past century, and now. Many Americans couldn?t identify more...

An ancient prophet, Persia?s Zoroaster, gave the world some powerful concepts: life after death in H more...

We all teach our children: "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me." It is more...

January is a good time to see how women are doing around the world in the past year. The status of w more...

I watched a fascinating CNN documentary (they seem to air one every Sunday evening) and I cannot get more...

It has been one year since we witnessed a horrifying attempt to reverse the Presidential ele more...

I rarely review novels, relegating my readings to just fun for me. But I did recently review more...

At this time of year, we all celebrate some sort of food feasts to commemorate the past. These are n more...

Justice Stephen Breyer wrote a book a few years ago tracking the history of the Supreme Cour more...

Human beings seem programmed to want fairness: justice. We want to know that our leaders are more...

There is a division of opinion on what constitutes "infrastructure." The common definition has to do more...

Our history shows us that our usually slow-moving republic can periodically make leaps of pr more...

Our history shows us that our usually slow-moving republic can periodically make leaps of pr more...

As I wrote in my last column, Fiona Hill, our former Russia expert who served in the Obama a more...

Populism refers to a range of political stances that emphasize the idea of "the people" and more...

Last week, this column explored Vladimir Putin?s role in destabilizing democracies. We have more...

Until the former presidency of Donald Trump, we made a number of assumptions about the Ameri more...

A minority of Americans engage in malpractice against the rest of us, who with even high sch more...

We have had few times in our history that one party was so dominant that it governed almost unimpede more...

Our news media have a short attention span. Otherwise savvy commentators talk about Trump?s future more...

We have a model of a party?s death throes in history, when during the 1850s, the Whig Party flounder more...

Religion is a basic institution that shapes a civilization. Our ancestors, like ourselves, h more...

Women make up half of humanity. We appear to be designed for a partnership with men, at leas more...

An American research group did an interesting experiment. They produced a resume that clicked off al more...

Human societies have changed more in the 20th and 21st centuries than in the previous 5,000 more...

Human societies are not governed by immutable instinct, as are most species below us. Becaus more...

As we watch the failure of one of our most sustained efforts at nation building, it is time to revis more...

A number of times during my many years of writing columns, I have noticed the great gulf in more...

Historians of democracy are becoming alarmed at the possibility of the United States, the oldest con more...

As Americans go back to work after the pandemic, a new issue has created controversy. Some b more...

The Russians have long been the masters of propaganda, the infiltration of conspiracy theori more...

We human beings have no global culture to which everyone agrees. We have been a polarized lot from t more...

We are suffering from one of our nation?s recurring problems: polarization. Our very nation?s birth more...

The 20th Century saw three World Wars: World War I (1914-18), World War II (1939-45,) and th more...

The 20th Century saw three World Wars: World War I (1914-18), World War II (1939-45,) and th more...

In the 1990s, an alarmist but popular program was the need for zero population growth. Warni more...

A census is the procedure of systematically enumerating, and acquiring and recording information abo more...

Our country has a long history of granting asylum to people in need. It was not usually an i more...

The United States is just one more great power to leave Afghanistan after twenty years of trying to more...

The traditional notion of Infrastructure is physical: roads, bridges, tunnels, airports, and more...

Many eyes glaze over when the word "Infrastructure" requires our attention. Most people think of suc more...

I am old enough to remember when women were not considered equal in rights to men. Women were "prote more...

One of the greatest historic mysteries to me is the global tradition of violence against wom more...

The pandemic closing of schools has given us an opportunity to rethink what we want of our nation?s more...

Human beings are the only species that deliberately passes knowledge and remembrance of events to it more...

Human beings are the only species capable of contemplating and preserving memories of past events. A more...

It is obvious that America has been "dumbed down." When one quarter of us do not have the sm more...

A cataclysmic pandemic does not end with everything going back to the world as it was. The Bubonic P more...

The history of pandemics, going back to the first documented event, the Bubonic Plague, fasc more...

History shows that our ancestors began to thrive when they learned to work together, to cooperate. more...

Our democracy had a close call when an organized coup attempt to nullify an election failed. more...

We are historically a two-party republic, a system that works in a country that is essentially centr more...

America?s Place in the World (Foreign Policy)
Pajaronian
Laina Farhat-Holzman
F more...

There was a country-wide, palpable sigh of relief when President Biden took his oath of offi more...

Toward the end of each president?s term of office, he and historians begin to think of a pre more...

George Packer, a brilliant staff writer at The Atlantic magazine was one of the essayists in more...

Our country is designed to move slowly, a protection that our Founders envisioned to protect more...

We have just witnessed a failed attempt at a coup to overturn a legal and peaceful election more...

We have just witnessed a failed attempt at a coup to overturn a legal and peaceful election more...

Economists and sociologists worry about the future of work. Robotics are replacing many human worker more...

One of the thorniest problems facing all the world?s modern governments is providing work for all ab more...

Last week, this column focused on the role of a common shared culture in the history of nati more...

Our founding fathers disagreed with each other on many things, foremost among the arguments more...

Most scholars argue that presidents cannot pardon themselves. More to the point, even if the more...

Democracy is not working well at this moment in history. A number of things that the Founder more...

With the current focus on the Supreme Court and its essential role in American life, it is i more...

What makes world history so fascinating is the mystery of human behavior. We are communal cr more...

With Joe Biden winning the election with a popular vote surplus of at least 4.5 million peop more...

Whatever the Founding Fathers envisioned as the United States that they were creating, they seemed t more...

"Empathy" has been much in the news lately, largely because of a presidential issue: living with a l more...

"Empathy" has been much in the news lately, largely because of a presidential issue: living more...

When President Washington stepped down from power after two terms in office, King George III more...

Much current discussion of the history of slavery ignores the larger picture. Slavery was un more...

Science and public health have immeasurably improved our lives. We do not die from foul wat more...

The death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg has brought to mind what a real patriot is. We also know wh more...

We would all do well to read Bret Stevens? wise column in the NYT: "Why Edmund Burke Still M more...

We would all do well to read Bret Stevens? wise column in the NYT: "Why Edmund Burke Still M more...

Last week, we discussed how Putin has manipulated President Trump to carry out Putin?s polic more...

When our Intelligence Community revealed that Putin was offering bounties to Taliban fighter more...

In the 11th century, a Persian (Iranian) Shiite cult leader, Hassan-e Sabah, holed up in a m more...

We have had an ugly year, one in which we suffered a dreadful pandemic, a wobbling economy, more...

We are currently living during a belated focus on history. The Black Lives Matter movement h more...

I generally do an annual "status of women around the world" column, and this year is an impo more...

The daily deliberate attack on the traditions of the Rule of Law come with speed as the next more...

Our Founding Fathers knew that leaders would not always be honorable, honest, or uncorrupt. Our syst more...

Because the last few cases of murder of Black men by police or vigilantes were caught on vid more...

Because the last few cases of murder of Black men by police or vigilantes were caught on vid more...

At the annual Al Smith fundraising dinner in New York in October 2019, former secretary of d more...

Actions have consequences. We all know this, something that good parentis teach children. In more...

Words are a funny thing; they sometimes morph from one meaning to its opposite over time, as we can more...

From the early 20th century until now, leaders of democracies have been confronted with dead more...

There is a case now before the Supreme Court about how much can religious rights (beliefs) t more...

The Darwin Awards are an annual joke promoted by those of us who believe that Darwin?s science is va more...

Our Founding Fathers were a product of the Enlightenment, the European movement promoting re more...

Historians are giving us a bonanza of books about great leaders in history. This is a great more...

Without his political rallies to pump up his ego, President Trump has resorted to lengthy da more...

Human beings are herd animals. We are communal, which is key to our survival. But unlike the majorit more...

In this glaringly unethical presidency, the issue of ethics and violation of ethics is front and cen more...

Human beings, unlike most lower species, are not governed much by instinct. The birds that r more...

The famous creator of the Barnum & Bailey Circus once noted: "There is a sucker born every m more...

In my last column: "Too Much Democracy," the question was raised that we were designed to be more...

Our country was designed as a republic, meaning representative government, not a democracy. The few more...

The power to pardon felons is vested in the Constitution. It is the one inheritance from the history more...

A new virus, the coronavirus, is sweeping the world. When our hunter-gatherer ancestors began settli more...

We regularly hear about President Trump?s latest "rollbacks" to regulations, the primary excuse bein more...

At the end of the Cold War, the world seemed hungry for political freedom. The Nazis and So more...

For the past 10,000 years, since our ancestors gathered into settled communities based on farming an more...

Our Judeo-Christian faiths tell us that "vengeance is the Lord's," one of those religious admonition more...

National security, since the time of President Harry Truman, has been the most essential dut more...

In an impassioned conclusion to the Senate Impeachment Trial, Representative Adam Schiff, th more...

Our president claims repeatedly at his rallies that "I know more about war than my g more...

A new term has now entered our lexicon: "gaslighting." In a 1940 movie called "Gaslight," an more...

Since President Franklin Roosevelt ordered the assassination of Japan?s Admiral Yamamoto during Worl more...

We take for granted how lucky we are to live in a society in which there is so much trust. It is aut more...

Every year, I do a survey of how women are doing around the world. Historically, women have more...

We are now in a festive season when food plays a major part in family celebrations. As a his more...

Many American historians refer to the institution of slavery as America?s founding sin. There is no more...

When everything that the US has done to create and support a global world order is being cha more...

When everything that the US has done to create and support a global world order is being cha more...

What could make a nice Middle-Class Norwegian murder 74 people because he hated his governme more...

The case that our president is under the malign influence of Vladimir Putin is solid. We hav more...

House speaker Nancy Pelosi noted recently that in the Trump Whitehouse, all roads lead to Pu more...

Throughout the ages, paranoid people have believed that whoever governs them has many secret more...

Paranoia is a psychological ailment in which a person believes that everyone is out to get him. Many more...

What distinguishes liberal democracies from dictatorships and absolute monarchies is "rule o more...

The political turmoil in American politics has spurred many experts to propose ways to save more...

The most blatant hatred of Jews comes from the resurgent White Nationalists, as we witnessed more...

We already know that President Trump has no respect for truth. He lies every time he more...

How the United States deals with the rest of the world is determined by our foreign more...

We already know that President Trump has no respect for truth. He lies every time he more...

Throughout human history, religion and law had a sometimes uneasy relationship. Kings expect more...

The "Me-Too" movement has focused our attention on the plight of women, a heritage as old as more...

The treatment of women from the beginning of our species has been shaped by biology: more...

When our ancient ancestors gave up hunting and gathering to begin growing crops and taming livestock more...

"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never harm me." This saying was aimed more...

A short letter to the San Francisco Chronicle proposed a brilliant solution to our national more...

It has taken thousands of years in which human beings struggled to evolve into the extraordi more...

Michael Beschloss, one of our country?s best presidential historians, labored longer than he more...

History is "our story." It can focus on certain parts while downplaying other parts. So much more...

Our founding fathers, particularly James Madison, was aware that a new, participatory republ more...

One of the most important elements in having participatory democracy, as well as flourishing capital more...

Russia is no longer the Soviet Union, an enemy with nukes they were ready to use. They held more...

Retired Admiral William McRaven, a man of sterling character, has been making the rounds of more...

A most important task of an incoming president is nominating the men and women who will serv more...

No one should force a pregnant woman to have an abortion, a practice in China years ago to a more...

If our first president, George Washington, had his way, we would not have had political part more...

Every year, I write a column dedicated to giving "Darwin Awards," awards to people who make more...

Volume I summarizes the Russian social media campaign through hacking the Democrats, feeding more...

There has been so much anxious anticipation of what the Mueller Report would tell us?at leas more...

There is too much talk about reforming our education system and too little discussion of wha more...

Foreign Policy. Only 10% of voters care about foreign policy issues, until we are at more...

I find Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, newly elected to Congress, bright, daring to think t more...

That famous bastion of intellectual freedom and tolerance, Universities, have lately been ac more...

The original American sin, slavery, was abolished by law by Abraham Lincoln. There was a brief attem more...

Two political systems were born early in the 20th century: Fascism and Communism. They behaved as en more...

There is a built-in desire among human beings for fairness. In antiquity, leaders were judge more...

Modern presidents have the power never envisioned by the Founding Fathers. Our founders fear more...

One of our country?s most distinguished magazines, The Atlantic Monthly, founded in 1857, wa more...

A friend of mine once commented that Russia never changes. The USSR was still an empire; the "great more...

There is a current disconnect between the poem on the Statue of Liberty (Give me your tired, your po more...

Women in modern, reason-based societies know that menstruation (monthly bleeding) is a norma more...

I am a tireless advocate for women to have choices and rights in their lives. What makes thi more...

I am a tireless advocate for women to have choices and rights in their lives. What makes thi more...

The economic system that has done so well by us is Capitalism, a system that encourages comp more...

My head reels to learn the FBI is exploring if our president is a willing agent of a foreign country more...

Last week, we explored the meaning and history of political corruption in our country. I emp more...

As George Marshall said in his toast to President Harry Truman, 'The full stature of this ma more...

I wrote about Pakistan?s hideous culture last week, about a woman accused of "blasphemy" who more...

Pakistan, like Saudi Arabia, is a country with which we have alliances despite our distaste more...

The US government is a very big bureaucracy, which to some critics is a bad thing. Howeve, more...

We have all become so numbed by the constant flood of nastiness in our current politics that Preside more...

The perennial hostility and conspiracy theories about Jews seemed, at least in the US, a non more...

Throughout history, the legitimacy of rulers had nothing to do with behavior, but wi more...

Islam as a global religion is having a crisis. Despite years of propaganda that began with the Irani more...

We are hearing much about "norms" today, an issue we usually do not have to think about beca more...

Sometimes, one only misses something when it is gone. This is the case with America?s long-s more...

One of the most important insights of our Founding Fathers, men who created an exceedingly r more...

One of the key benefits of a representative governing system is that it provides justice---f more...

The brand new United State of America in 1779 invented the first presidency in the world. Ev more...

Since the end of World War II, something never before seen was happening to the world: a spr more...

As our political world is once more roiled by allegations of abuse of women, this time a woman who h more...

At the end of the 20th century, it appeared that Democracy was on a roll. The UN published t more...

Ordinarily, the status of women around the world is of more interest to western educated wom more...

Populism around the world is in the process of destroying liberal democracy, replacing it wi more...

Iran has proven a complex and difficult country for the US to have a coherent foreign policy more...

Diplomacy is a very old tradition in the world. The world?s first kings 7,000 years ago (Sum more...

Iran has a serious water problem. Major lakes, such as Oroumieh, are drying up, as a more...

In the 19th century, as science was beginning to replace religious explanations for phenomen more...

Human beings sometimes lie. How much they deliberately tell an untruth varies according to the natur more...

While watching with horror the recent deliberate separation of children from their parents a more...

A popular notion among conspiracy lovers is that there is a secret government that really ru more...

History reflects trends and broad sweeps, but also the mark of powerful individuals. The US more...

Western Civilization does not have all the answers to those wanting a perfect society. Even more...

Western Civilization does not have all the answers to those wanting a perfect society. Even more...

The issue of how much and what kind of immigration we should allow in this country has fluc more...

Recently, I heard a TV discussion between Fareed Zakaria and Tony Blair, the former Prime Mi more...

Russia attempted to clandestinely manipulate our 2016 presidential election, a fact shared w more...

People "believe" many things, some that they see themselves, some learned from parents and t more...

Seventy years ago, the United Nations recognized the birth of three new nations: Israel, Ind more...

A packed auditorium listened to the April 30 presentation of the Leon Panetta Lecture Series: "The A more...

The recent widespread teachers? strike was the first time in years that we had to think of public ed more...

Most weapons of war are frightening enough; they are designed to kill an enemy or protect on more...

A major tool of modern life is gathering, publishing, and using information that can help a more...

In antiquity, our numbers grew enough to give rise to towns and cities, kingdoms, and empires. Ruler more...

Definitions are very useful when words have power over our minds. Terrorism is one of those words. F more...

John F. Kennedy?s Profiles in Courage provided us with the biographies of men who defied pol more...

People in the modern world roll their eyes when they hear the word "blasphemy." This is such more...

Last week, we reviewed Russia?s long-term foreign policy, a policy that is a reflection of i more...

"Russia," as Winston Churchill once noted, "is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma." They more...

The extraordinary closeness of our 2016 presidential election is getting plenty of attention more...

Although slavery did not begin with America, its effects still poison the dreams of the America Blac more...

In 1978, Pakistan?s newly elected president, Zia ul Huq, transformed his country from an aspiring se more...

For several years now, we have heard about Information Warfare, a new way of fightin more...

It is difficult to believe that a holiday as seemingly benign as St. Valentine's Day could a more...

This column is not just launching an attack on President Trump, although his character does more...

Abraham Lincoln in his first Inaugural Address, on Monday, March 4, 1861, delivered more...

The Syrian city of Raqqa, recently cleared of its ISIS fanatics, is being rebuilt after near more...

At the time of this writing, street demonstrations have been roiling Iran for almost a week more...

History is full of examples of misinformation being broadly believed by the gullible. There more...

I try to be a political centrist, and have done so for both Democratic and Republican presid more...

Laws are rules of behavior observed and enforced by a society. These rules are mandated by w more...

Is fear of strangers (xenophobia) built in to the human genetic code? If genetic, it would be instin more...

Our country is having an epidemic of bad manners, causing all sorts of discord. In Western C more...

Every mainstream religion has positive elements that provide comfort and direction to its pa more...

The political pendulum in this country has now swung to two extremes, making it very difficult for a more...

The political pendulum in this country has now swung to two extremes, making it very difficult for a more...

Saudi Arabia is a unique nation-state: a kingdom named for its ruling family, the Sauds. Th more...

The past few centuries have seen the rise of the nation-state, countries defined by a common more...

An obnoxious Hollywood mogul, a man who for decades sexually harassed seemingly every female more...

When our country was being created, our first president, George Washington, tried to avoid h more...

If American foreign policy were based on our own historic experience, we must oppose secession movem more...

The latest Ken Burns documentary, Vietnam, should have been as widely watched as his Civil W more...

Survival is a universal instinct among all living creatures. Nature seems to give even mice a fighti more...

Russia is a victim of geography; everything unpleasant, violent, paranoid, and dark can be t more...

We have heard the term "identity politics" a great deal during the last presidential electio more...

Afghanistan has been a problem since Alexander the Great tramped through on his way to India. It bec more...

"Freedom" is an interesting idea, one that is much used in ways that are often contradictory. Freedo more...