Two decades ago, when NASA scientist James Hansen presciently announced his virtual certainty that people were heating up the planet, critics understandably emerged in force. After all, we knew relatively little about climate change in those days. But now, with information in abundance, there is no excuse for the naysayers’ stubborn opposition.

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 [...]