When the Penn State Board of Trustees fired head football coach Joe Paterno over his failure to meet his moral obligations in the child sex scandal that came to light last week, he unfortunately became the story. But, no matter how iconic a figure Paterno is, this story is about...

The United States is the world's most influential country -- and the time has come to use some of that power to sway events in Egypt. Until yesterday, the Obama administration had been lukewarm in its public support of reform in Egypt. But now that Hosni Mubarak has ceded his...

When the authoritarian regime of Tunisian President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali fell in mid-January, many in the news media dubbed it the "Twitter Revolution." In the words of New York Times columnist Roger Cohen, "Facebook gave young protesters [in Tunisia] the connective muscle to oust an...

I have the greatest job in the world. As a university professor, I make good money, have a flexible work schedule, and receive outstanding benefits. Among the perks I get at New York University, I have a team of students that help me with important tasks: babysitting, cooking, cleaning, laundry,...

This weekend, the FBI arrested a man for planting what he thought was an improvised explosive device outside Wrigley Field in Chicago. Sami Samir Hassoun had hoped to kill scores of spectators who were leaving Saturday night's Dave Matthews Band concert. Fortunately, Hassoun had been on the FBI's...

Like any act of violence, terrorist strikes involve the convergence of intentions and capabilities.

The unsuccessful attack on Times Square by Faisal Shahzad serves as a reminder that there are still people at large, both at home and abroad, that will not hesitate to take the lives of innocent Americans...

On Monday, while Americans were fixated on the hunt for and subsequent arrest of Faisal Shahzad for his alleged role in the Times Square bomb plot, an equally important terrorism-related story that was breaking in Detroit went relatively unnoticed.

A federal judge ordered the release of all nine members of...

Last week, on the heels of continuing violence that claimed the lives of three individuals associated with the U.S. Consulate in Ciudad Juarez, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton led a high-level delegation to Mexico City in an effort to expand support for Mexico's crack-down on organized crime.

Mexico has been...

Just to be clear, when Joseph Andrew Stack flew his single-engine Piper aircraft into a building housing the offices of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in Austin, Texas on February 18, he committed an act of terrorism -- plain and simple.

A reading of Stack's five single-spaced pages...

As national leaders from around the world are gathering in Copenhagen, Denmark, to attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference, the time is ripe to re-assess America's current energy policies - but within the larger framework of how a new approach on the environment will stave off global warming and...

Slavery is alive and well in the 21st century. This point hit home this past weekend, when I led a group of New York University students through the interactive human trafficking exhibit Journey co-sponsored by Oscar winner Emma Thompson, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and the Helen Bamber Foundation.

Barring an eleventh hour intervention by the governor of Virginia, the D.C. sniper John Muhammad will be put to death for his role in the shooting spree that claimed 10 lives and terrorized the nation's capital in 2002.

Tomorrow's execution sets the stage for the story I want to share...

This past week, we were sadly reminded that guns in the hands of the aggrieved or the disturbed can produce horrific consequences.

Just as the nation dealt with the shock of an Army psychiatrist killing 13 and causing injury to another 38 on Thursday at Fort Hood in Texas,...

At 5:01 a.m. (EDT) I was awoken by a text alert from the Associated Press (AP) informing me that President Barack Obama had won this year's Nobel Peace Prize. Half asleep, I laughed at the AP for making such a gross reporting error. Obama wins the Nobel? Pleassseee!

But within...