Politics & Policy

Three Cheers for Solid Bilateral Relations

By John R. Thomson July 31, 2009

There is something wonderful about the bilateral relationships the United States has enjoyed in the decades during and since World War II. Our dealings, notably with Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Chile, ...

Politics & Policy

Ousting a Chávez Wannabe

By John R. Thomson July 1, 2009

Beware the coup d’état. They often cause more problems than they solve and are never totally peaceful; indeed, they typically trigger bloodshed either during or after the event. So what should ...

Politics & Policy

Subverting Latin Democracy

By John R. Thomson & Norman Pino De Lion March 31, 2009

There is little or no joy to be gleaned from the recent El Salvador presidential election. Perhaps the least unfavorable observation is that although spiced with inflammatory rhetoric, the campaign ...

Politics & Policy

‘A Matter of the People’

By John R. Thomson November 18, 2008

Caracas can deceive a visitor initially. Despite a horrifically debilitating decade under Hugo Chavez’s negligent despotism, some things remain the same. The city still has a range of excellent restaurants. ...

Politics & Policy

Chavez Expansion Plans

By John R. Thomson October 22, 2008

Tiny El Salvador, the size of Massachusetts, has become a crucial factor in Hugo Chavez’s expansion plans — and in the push by drug lords to find ever-more-secure routes from ...

Politics & Policy

Minimum Justice for All?

By John R. Thomson August 19, 2008

So you think Osama bin Laden’s chauffeur and all around go-to aide, Salim Hamdan, got a light sentence — from a military tribunal, no less? Many jurists and analysts have ...

Politics & Policy

Sainted or Stockholmed?

By John R. Thomson & Dorotea Laserna July 28, 2008

Since July 2, when Colombia’s armed forces so spectacularly freed Ingrid Betancourt and 14 male hostages from their oppressive jungle imprisonment, a frenzy of adoration for the one-time leftist Colombian ...

Politics & Policy

El Fin del Fin

By John R. Thomson & Dorotea Laserna July 11, 2008

The past few months have been a heady time in Colombia. It all started in February when an estimated 10 million citizens throughout the country demonstrated against the ongoing murderous ...

Politics & Policy

What Iranian Threat?

By John R. Thomson August 21, 2006

Why would a professed theocracy consistently act in a revolutionary way? Just what is behind that country’s consistently anti-freedom, anti-American acts in the Middle East, in East Asia, and even ...

Politics & Policy

Fragmentation

By John R. Thomson & Hussain Hindawi May 9, 2006

Senator Joseph Biden and Leslie Gelb recently published an article in the New York Times titled “Unity Through Autonomy in Iraq.” It’s a good idea, and one that we have ...