Daniel Kahneman, who won a Nobel Prize in economics for reshaping our understanding of human motivation, once said: “No one ever made a decision because of a number. They need a story.” That’s as true for nations as for individuals. Countries have always oriented themselves within a larger international story. But what is today’s global […]

In his first year in office, President Donald Trump has done many positive things — from enforcing Barack Obama’s red line in Syria to recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement, driving the Islamic State from its physical caliphate, getting NATO allies to kick in more money for our collective security, […]

While everyone is fixated on President Donald Trump’s unbecoming and inexplicable assault on Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the media has been trying to sneak away from the “Russian collusion” story. That’s right. For all the breathless hype, the on-air furrowed brows and the not-so-veiled hopes that this could be Watergate, Jared Kushner’s statement and testimony […]

This year it was easy for any story about science or nature to get, quite literally, eclipsed. When the world wasn’t fixated on the total solar eclipse that traversed the continental U.S., scientists were making headlines by marching through major U.S. cities. But there were many other important if less publicized events, ideas, trends, problems […]

 When President Richard Nixon asked my old boss at the Smithsonian Institution to loan me, then the institution’s head of environmental sciences, to the White House, I took on what may seem like an impossible task: write and help enact one of the country’s most important environmental laws. But I did, and the bill passed […]

It didn’t feel like this on Jan. 1, did it? But 360-something days later, 2017 has turned out to be the Unexpected Year of the Woman. A shocker, yes. Because remember, 2016 was supposed to be the official, glass-shattering Year of the Woman. Hillary Clinton made history as the first female major-party candidate for president. […]

In Maine, there’s a warehouse the size of a middle school gymnasium, stuffed with brand-new medical supplies and gently used medical equipment. Several pallets are piled with boxes of surgical sutures, still in their shrink wrap, each box worth hundreds of dollars. Tubs overflow with diabetes supplies and surgical instruments that may run hundreds of […]

While it may cost me my membership in the GOP foreign policy establishment’s fan club, I think that President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital was the right thing to do on several fronts. To begin with, the simple act of aligning campaign rhetoric and government policy is something we need more of […]

As we approach the end of President Donald Trump’s first year in office, the list of extraordinary things he has done — for both good and ill —  is nothing short of remarkable. Trump inspires such deep emotions in his critics and supporters that many have struggled to objectively assess his presidency. Some are so blinded […]

 The Trump administration’s National Security Strategy (NSS), released Monday, puts “America First.” In other words, there is no chance this Republican administration will share the moral imperative of the last Republican administration, led by George W. Bush, that emphasized the maintenance and expansion of a liberal world order. Indeed, the opening statement of the 2002 […]