The New Republic

Impose sanctions or not? Europe is clearly hesitating, seemingly frightened by its own potential daring. And, as always, when the troubling spirit of appeasement and fear is in the air, Europe is looking for any plausible reason to do nothing at all. READ MORE >>

The future of Russia's excursion in Georgia remains to be determined. But some conclusions can already be drawn: READ MORE >>

There are unknowns, of course. The persona of John McCain is already in play and it would be wrong to underestimate him. The man is remarkable, surprising in his opposition to torture and Guantanamo, audacious when he challenged the economic policies of the two Bush administrations. And isn't it said that Democrat John Kerry considered for a time asking this unconventional conservative to share the ticket with him? READ MORE >>

It is time that we pay tribute to Simone de Beauvoir. Posterity being what it is--unjust, capricious, confusing and chaotic, making a great deal out of very little, force-feeding us May '68 nostalgia and treating the dead as if they have not lost any of their formidable, vibrant virulence (not that this is, in this case, such a terrible thing)--it is time we celebrate Simone de Beauvoir on a scale commensurate with the 100th anniversary of her birth, which passed nearly unnoticed on Jan. 9. READ MORE >>

The generals are deaf. As everyone now knows, the regime was warned by weather forecasters in India two days before the cyclone arrived--five days before by forecasters in Thailand--and it refused to listen. READ MORE >>

Friends of Tibet and the Tibetan cause, I would like to remind you that China's totalitarian power also bears responsibility for another crushing disaster: Darfur. Of course I am not saying that the Chinese government and its army are directly involved. READ MORE >>

Madame Chancellor, Mr. President, READ MORE >>

It has been said that the upcoming Olympic Games will effectively open up China to the world--and thus to democracy--and that the members of Communist Party's inner circle, knowing that China will be observed and scrutinized as never before, will find it in their best interests to present a good image of their regime. In reality, we find that the exact opposite has occurred. They have expelled the poor and the unproductive from the cities. They have accelerated their demolition of the "hutongs," working-class neighborhoods, in the center of Beijing. READ MORE >>

In February 2001, while I was doing research for my book on the forgotten wars, I met Iván Ríos, the FARC commander who was recently executed by his own security chief and bodyguard somewhere on the border between the Columbian provinces of Caldia and Antioquia. This morning's newspapers say he was 40 years old at that time. In my memory he was a little older than that. In any case, he was the youngest of the seven members of the general secretariat of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. READ MORE >>

There is one book that says it all.   An old book, nearly a classic. Oddly, it is rarely mentioned in France.   This book, published in 1957, is titled The King's Two Bodies: A Study in Mediaeval Political Theology.   Its author is Ernst H. Kantorowicz, a Jewish historian and medievalist from Germany who immigrated to the United States in 1939.   READ MORE >>