There are two kinds of people in this world that go around beardless--boys and women--and I am neither one."- - Greek saying

A woman with a beard looks like a man. A man without a beard looks like a woman. - Afghan Saying

Please set aside notions of...

Someone shoved a piece of paper under my door. A sheet cut in half with instructions about how to evacuate in the case of a hurricane or an invasion. One phrase struck me like the refrain of a bad song: "Sew a tag to the clothes of minor children with...

WASHINGTON - This year the number of poor people around the world struggling to get enough food for survival for themselves and their families has risen to a little more than a billion - the highest level in 30 years.

Dubai is finally financially bankrupt – but it has been morally bankrupt all along. The idea that Dubai is an oasis of freedom on the Arabian peninsular is one of the great lies of our time. Yes, it has Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts and the Gucci styles, but beneath these...

The rare resignation on principle is always telling in American government. When Matthew Hoh recently left the State Department -- a Marine Captain in Iraq who became a diplomat in Afghanistan -- his act was significant far beyond the first reports.

Hoh speaks grim truth to power. His message is...

This Week's Top Stories in Foreign Affairs:

Massacre in Mindanao
SI Analysis: At least 57 people were brutally killed as a result of a longstanding political rivalry in this southern island of the Philippines. Philippine President Gloria Arroyo quickly called a state of emergency. But...

It delights us to cure ourselves of that stage of life we call adolescence and, in particular, to become independent. Finding an answer to that question we have asked ourselves so often: "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Able to leave home without explaining ourselves, being...

A stunning archaeological find surfaced two weeks ago amid world-wide media coverage: "Vanished Persian Army Said Found in Desert." The longstanding mystery surrounding the Lost Army of Cambyses--50,000 Persian soldiers swallowed up in a hurricane-force sandstorm in 525 BC--had finally been solved.

As one of the world's leading experts on...

Face this fact. If Iran tomorrow announced a complete halt of its uranium enrichment program and ordered an immediate dismantling of its nuclear facilities under the full supervision of an IAEA safeguards army of inspectors ... we would still not cut the Islamic Republic any slack.

We would likely move...

The great hope was that President Obama would have the courage and political sense to do what JFK did forty six years ago. Kennedy told the generals 'no' to their demand for escalation in Vietnam. It wasn't easy. The Pentagon had drawn up plans for the massive military ramp up,...

Although there is sharp political division for and against Ahmadinejad in Iran, there is virtual unanimity among all political factions that Iran must have nuclear weapons in order to protect itself. Given this, even if President Ahmadinejad and the hard line clerics were to be removed from power in Iran,...

As Hondurans go to the polls this Sunday, months of negotiations and years of diplomatic precedent hang in the balance. The Obama administration hopes that the presidential elections will end the political crisis in Honduras. The deep divisions in Honduran society and the firmness with which most Latin American leaders...

From New York to Singapore, hundreds of major news organizations, including the New York Times, the BBC, the Associated Press, Reuters, and the Voice of America utilized the worst possible news cycle to announce that they were in receipt of a "leaked" United Nations Report detailing:

• Arms...

RAMALLAH - A political leader's decision not to seek re-election usually triggers fervent discussion about potential heirs. Yet, President Mahmoud Abbas's withdrawal from the presidential election scheduled for January 24, 2010, has produced nothing of the kind in Palestine - not because of a dearth of leadership or a reluctance...