ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — The slaves who once stared with terror at prospective buyers in the covered market here in America’s oldest city may be long gone, but tens of millions of their 21st-century brethren wear similar desperate expressions all over the world, including in the United States.
How can we tolerate such a disgrace? How [...]

When I wrote about presidential dream tickets nearly a year ago, with U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona leading Republicans and U.S. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois as the No. 2 for Democrats, criticism rained from many directions.
“There is no way McCain will be the Republican nominee,” hundreds of people said. “Obama does not have [...]

The campaign for the U.S. presidency finally has veered in a more interesting direction. On a daily basis since Super Tuesday, dozens of people have contacted me to express similar thoughts. Especially on the Democratic side, the contest has turned into a real competition.
To generate even more appeal, the candidates in both parities – and [...]

After listening to U.S. presidential wannabes debate – and I use that word loosely, because I have yet to hear a real one in this campaign – and otherwise discuss key issues, I have a pressing piece of advice:
It’s foreign policy, stupid. And we hear too little about it.

Col. (ret.) Lawrence B. Wilkerson, who was former Secretary of State Colin Powell’s chief of staff from 2002-2005, currently teaches at The College of William & Mary. He shared his recommendations for the next U.S. president with foreign-affairs columnist John C. Bersia.

Shortly before this week’s U.S.-guided, Israeli-Palestinian summit meeting in Annapolis, Maryland, I spent a day with someone who understands the complexities of Middle East peacemaking better than most: Jehan Sadat, the widow of former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.
Our conversations took me back to a more optimistic period, that of the Camp David Accords, when the [...]

At the beginning of President George W. Bush’s first term, many Chinese wanted to know: Why does Bush dislike us? Is China losing the United States?
Now, as Bush’s second term begins to wind down, the current issue of Foreign Affairs provocatively asks: “Is China Winning Asia?”

Mahatma Gandhi’s famous phrase, “Be the change you want to see in the world,” came to mind the other day, on the occasion of his birthday. How I wish that another, similarly talented Gandhi would spring onto the scene in India, along with counterparts in other countries.
The world desperately needs visionary leadership. Can you [...]

Cases of overwhelming governmental brutality, such as the crackdown that has killed an untold number of people in Myanmar, prompt an age-old question: How should other nations respond?
My initial impulse was to send a series of cruise missiles right into government buildings in Naypyitaw, the country’s remote capital and refuge of the ruling military [...]

When supporters of the Iraq war argue that the United States should avoid premature, politically motivated gestures – such as last week’s U.S. House of Representatives vote to pull out by April 2008 – I cannot help responding, “And what was the essence of the original decision to intervene?”
In short, it was premature and politically [...]