When the intense violence of illegal drug-trafficking was causing a commotion several hours away by air in places like Colombia, Americans were not terribly concerned. But now that it is killing about 100 people a week in Mexico, spilling over the U.S. border with that country, being branded a top national-security threat and disrupting vacation [...]

HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA — After a recent column about the global recession, in which I described our situation as bad but not desperate, several readers angrily responded: “There’s really no reason for optimism. If you’re that hopeful, why didn’t you provide some inspiring examples?”
Happy to oblige. In fact, I am visiting one of them right [...]

The opening salvo of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s “global listening tour” — a swing through Asia — has produced constructive effects and positioned the United States for renewed leadership in the region.
Nearly a year ago, I recommended that the next American presidential administration focus early and often on the Asia-Pacific area, [...]

Why is the Obama administration’s plan to revamp the U.S. approach to national security drawing criticism before it even gains momentum?
If anything, the overhaul – which National Security Adviser James Jones will supervise – is past due. The global realm continues to evolve in major and often unanticipated ways; strategies must keep pace. As Jones [...]

When British Prime Minister Gordon Brown uttered the word “depression” recently, listeners gasped. A similar effect immediately rippled across Europe and around the world. By the time that Brown’s office was suggesting that he had made a mistake, the damage was done. Another potential “crisis of confidence” had emerged, and I would like to know [...]

U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell has what many people would consider a thankless task: taking on a panoply of complex antagonisms that are steeped in history and agitated by religious tensions, ambitions to acquire weapons of mass destruction, disputed land, war, competition for resources, statelessness, ethnic rivalries, terrorism and ideological jockeying for influence.
Yet, it [...]

As President Obama takes America’s helm, I recall a poignant, recent cover of The Economist that featured him, striding with determination, underneath a simple headline: “It’s time.”
Indeed, it is. And, with this nation confronting one of the most chaotic and dangerous periods in history, it is also time for critics, naysayers, pessimists and other purveyors [...]

In 2009, my America – the one that I grew up with, knew and loved so well – is not as visible around the world. Born from a storied revolution that launched an ongoing pursuit of freedom, democracy and equality, my America offered hope and inspiration everywhere.
Now, though, the United States faces unacceptably diminished credibility [...]

In dealing with Iran, I have favored caution, along with a strategy that does not hesitate to criticize but also to engage in a proactive fashion. To me, such an approach offers far more potential than the preferred method of the Bush administration, which has combined criticism with alienation. I look to the incoming Obama [...]

NEW YORK — Like a monster movie, climate change casts an ominous, larger-than-life shadow. The American Museum of Natural History’s special exhibition (http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/climatechange/) depicts it well. After witnessing such dramatic images of searing heat, melting ice, unusually powerful storms, rising seas and other devastating occurrences, it would be impossible for anyone to ignore or minimize [...]