As one assesses the Republican primary race, it seems increasingly evident that Mitt Romney will win the party's presidential nomination. But he will be inheriting a fractured party.

The Tea Party activists have over the past months all but declared that they detest Romney and won't forgive him because of...

A remarkable book has just been published about one of America's most brilliant diplomats, Richard Holbrooke, entitled The Unquiet American (PublicAffairs Press). Holbrooke, who tragically died last year at age 69 trying to complete his last and perhaps most important mission -- ending the US war in Afghanistan -- was...

My mother is an extraordinary human being. At age 99, she is still an active and alert woman, full of interest about the upcoming presidential election, an inveterate watcher of TV news and Rachel Maddow and The Ed Show, an avid reader of The New York Times and best-sellers.

But...

My wife and I saw Diane Keaton speak about her new book, Then Again, which is her memoir about her mother, her upbringing and her career and her private times. Many of us now in our sixties carry the indelible image of Keaton from her movies roles reminding us of...

In the year 2000, the UN committed itself to the task of halving poverty by the year 2015 through the so-called Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) program. As the UN has moved closer to 2015, however, an economic catastrophe has obviously intervened in the last few years which now threatens...

I live in New York City and went downtown to Zuccotti Park to visit the Occupy Wall Street encampment yesterday. The Park is not a grassy expanse, but instead a long rectangular slab of concrete. On this hard surface people were sleeping or talking or holding signs or chanting anti-banker...

In the last few weeks, the United Nations has acted as the fire brigade for the world. First, the UN Security Council authorized its member-states to establish a "no-fly" zone over Libya, including bombing, aerial assaults and missile strikes, to protect civilians against attacks by Colonel Gaddafi's...

Several days ago, Secretary of Defense, Bob Gates on a visit to Iraq suggested that some US troops might remain in Iraq beyond the 2011 deadline for withdrawal if the Iraqi government requested it. But yesterday, the UN's official representative in Iraq, former Dutch political leader, Ad Melkert, told a...

There seems little question that sinister, backstage efforts are being made now by the besieged Mubarak regime to thwart the citizen uprising in Egypt. The sudden appearance of pro-Mubarak gangs, some on horses using whips, others equipped with firearms, clubs, knives and other weaponry, are clear indications that...

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is a self-defined "crusader" whose delusions are his singular fate. He set up his WikiLeaks website because he apparently believes all systems of government -- democracies, dictatorships, kingships, whatever -- are fundamentally corrupt and that only his exposures -- whether through the use of stolen videos...

I have long brooded over the fact that Sarah Palin still grabs headlines over the most egregious comments. She wangs Michelle Obama for pushing for an end of obesity in the United States. She goes after Barbara Bush for being an elitist "blue-blood" for saying that Palin should stay in...

President Obama, in his address to the Indian Parliament, announced that the US would support India's bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. This represents a significant public recognition by the world's only superpower that India -- not only as the globe's largest democracy, but also a...

One of the largest imponderables of the American commitment in Afghanistan has been President Obama's decision to set a deadline of July 2011 for the beginning of a draw-down in US forces from that South Asian nation. That date, established last year, has engendered much controversy about whether it strengthens...

There may be a dim, but brightening, beacon, at the end of the Afghan tunnel. At least that's what the UN's emissary to Afghan conflict, Staffan de Mistura, Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Afghanistan, conveyed to a group at a private meeting held by the International Peace Institute, an...

Why has the story of the UN's founding never made it into the cinematic arena? The story of the UN's creation is an extraordinarily dramatic tale that would surely rivet people if they could view how the great leaders of the 1940s -- Roosevelt, Truman, Churchill, Stalin -- and their...

Saturday's New York Times reports that Afghan President Hamid Karzai now doubts that the US and its NATO allies can defeat the Taliban. As a consequence, these days he is seeking to negotiate some sort of peace settlement with the insurgents. However certain members of his own administration...

How far can a political party grow and prosper and lead on anger alone? This is the dilemma that faces the Republican Party today. But it is not apparently an issue anymore. That is the way its leadership has determined its fate for the coming years. For it will now...

As American forces continue the battle to drive Taliban forces from Afghan territory, a debate persists over whether President Obama was right to set a withdrawal date of July 2011 for US troops leaving the country. What was Obama attempting to do by dispatching an additional 30,000 soldiers to the...

President Obama's policy in Afghanistan, subject to so much controversy at home and abroad, seems to have found considerable traction over the last few days. First is the news that the U.S.-British assault on the Taliban stronghold of Marja in the southern Helmand Province has made substantial gains and killed...

President Obama gave some spine back to the Democrats in his State of the Union speech. He told his fellow party members "don't head for the hills." He said that health care reform is still vital and that he and his party would not drop their battle for it and...