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President Nixon photographed through a window explaining release of edited transcripts, April 29, 1974

Will There Be a Last Nixon Cover-Up?

… with the Nixon Foundation. John Taylor, a Nixon Foundation official, is negotiating the transfer of the records. As a … staff, I am alarmed by this news. As their administrations come to a close, presidents establish foundations to raise … us during the first Bush administration, NARA’s top officials left us twisting in the wind. They sat silent when …
Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)—Article 19 states that "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."

Free Speech: Still Under Threat

… than that enjoyed by the British, whose draconian libel and official secrets laws can stop the distribution of books, … After all, American society is now among the world's most complex. In a nation of such diverse origins, practices and … of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it." But his views have not always been heeded. Nor …

Dry Days Down Under: Australia and the World Water Crisis

… is a self-reinforcing event. How, we should ask, has it come to all this? Australia's water woes are, in part, a … and tensions between private corporations and government officials, and between Europeans and Aboriginal peoples. … water supply in Sydney, the Tank Stream, quickly became a site of contention—and disastrously polluted—as local elites …
Mata Hari (1876-1917).

Top Ten Origins: Spies, Lies, and Moles: Oh My!

… spy. Since then, as this list shows, espionage became more complex and increasingly valuable. The times change, but … capacity of Her Majesty’s original secret service, working officially as Secretary of State and adviser to Queen … at the onset of World War II . It quickly became the site for the British Code and Cypher School, headquarters …

Russia, Gay Rights, and the Sochi Olympics

… called for staying home from Sochi. Some European political officials announced that they will not attend Sochi, … delegation to Sochi. Inadvertently, the Sochi games have become the gay games. Homosexuality in Russia Today The … while views in the West are moving quickly in the opposite direction. Attitudes towards gays and lesbians have …
The Thirty Years War (1618-1648) was one of the bloodiest in history: 8 million people lost their lives in Europe's deadliest religious conflict.

Secularism, Past and Future

Review of Secularism: Politics, Religion, and Freedom, by Andrew Copson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017)
… French scholar Jean Bauberot. Bauberot sees three essential components to a secular society: 1) the separation of … tumult of French politics in the 19th century, the French commitment to what they call laïcité remained. By the Third Republic (1870-1940) it had become “a defining ideology of the state.” It has become …

Human Rights at a Crossroads

… on September 25, 2018 at the UN Headquarters in New York [Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian]. United … U.S. soldiers just as they were returning from overseas combat ( left ). The opening session of the League of … mediated disputes throughout Europe and Asia, among other accomplishments. The League’s original charter also included …

Playing Politics: Olympic Controversies Past and Present

… athletic prowess in the Games of the XXIX Olympiad. Olympic officials, on the other hand, speak piously of keeping politics out of sports competition. I am frequently asked, "Must politics be a part … vexed question of Tibet. Although the "Free Tibet" Internet site calls for full boycott, most other protestors seem …
Zbigniew Brzezinski at Camp David in 1978.

Meddlers Hamstring Iraq Policy

… State pushes for multilateral diplomacy. When retired officials elbow their way into such a conflict, only more … as the voice of prudence, the realpolitik strategic thinker compelled to inform the naive, idealistic newcomers from the South about national interests and …
Egyptian Leader Gamal Abdel-Nasser

Egypt Once Again Bans the Muslim Brotherhood, Sixty Years Later

… to occupy the Suez Canal zone. Nasser, who did not become Egypt’s official head of state until 1956, came to power in 1952 as … shots are heard, but Nasser hardly pauses, and his speech becomes ever more impassioned: “O free men, let them kill me …
Karzai with former US President George W. Bush and wife Laura Bush at Camp David in 2007.

Keep Karzai in the Loop

… offered from the North and would keep South Vietnamese officials updated on major developments.   While promising … shown the agreement, he felt presented with a fait accompli and refused to consent.   Believing that he had been …
 Pinterest Hien Luong Bridge - Ben Hai River, Quang Tri, Vietnam

Vietnam Revisited: Forty Years after the Paris Peace Accord

… years ago on January 27, 1973, the U.S. War in Viet Nam officially concluded with the signing of the Paris Peace … It was then the longest war in U.S. history; although commonly dated as beginning in 1965 with American bombing … to destroy military targets, which include military sites or the manufacturing, transportation, and …

Learning to Love the Nuclear Pariah: From China to North Korea

… An estimate compiled by the nation’s intelligence services reaches the … America’s position in the Asia-Pacific. National security officials weigh their options: to pass resolutions in the … Republic of China in 1949 ( left ). President Nixon visited China in 1972, but the U.S. did not formally recognize …
The colorful buildings of Tirana, viewed from the steps of the National Museum.

A Postcard from Tirana: Overcoming the Past

… dotted with reminders of this past, but the residents welcome visitors with true Albanian hospitality and intend to … continuously inhabited since the Bronze Age, it was not officially established as a town until 1614, when a mosque, … the Soviet state, and with little regard for the historical sites of the city, Hoxha began a massive building campaign …
The Dalai Lama during a visit to Boston, Massachusetts in 2017.

An Effective American Policy on Tibet?

… Tibet. They demand that President Clinton act forcefully to compel China to change its policies toward Tibet. This … and win popular approval for the Clinton administration. Official U.S. policy has always been that Tibet is not … done. Clinton will seem like an activist president without committing himself to very much. And the Tibetans? In …
Integrated classroom in 1955.

The Long-Term Legacies of Brown v. Board

… multi-cultural society. Ironically, re-segregation has become prevalent in some school districts while at the … have lowered admissions standards. Both developments are compromising the original intent of Brown. On May 17, 1954, … as their white counterparts. In addition, school officials in Topeka, Kan.;Little Rock, Ark.; Wilmington, …

What's All Happening at the Zoo?

… The gorilla habitat at the Cincinnati Zoo in 2016. Zoo officials decided that they must kill the gorilla. With a … kill a gorilla who had done nothing wrong. Still others posited that the wrongdoing lay not with any particulars, but … even have gorilla enclosures in the first place? It should come as no surprise that zoos make headlines. According to a …
Mikhail Gorbachev and President Ronald Reagan posing for a photograph in the White House Library.

The American “Nation Building” Mission and Russia

… details of domestic issues, the most eye-opening comments on foreign policy have stemmed from Gov. George W. … like there was reform" in Russia while corrupt Moscow officials pocketed Western aid; he also rejected the idea … The stark differences between the two candidates' comments tend to obscure the fact that Republicans, as well …

Outdoing Panama: Turkey’s ‘Crazy’ Plan to Build an Istanbul Canal

… on the Bosporus—a strait crowded not only with urban commuters and pleasure craft, but Russian oil tankers … west of Istanbul. The canal would bypass the Bosporus , the site of multiple shipping accidents, and link the Black Sea … pro-Islamic party, of plotting to move Turkey away from its official secular ideology toward a more Islamic path. He …
Joseph Stalin

Dismantling a Legacy: The Last Days of Stalin

Review of The Last Days of Stalin, by Joshua Rubenstein (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2015)
… charged with attempting to assassinate high-ranking Soviet officials, and a power struggle among members of Stalin’s … pardoned or remitted the sentences of prisoners whom had committed minor offenses. As they worked to dismantle … narrow” for the United States and the Soviet Union to come out on the other side with a better relationship, …
MTA digital message campaign recognizes "Heroes moving Heroes," frontline employees who help other essential workers get to and from their jobs, 2020.

Work and Life after COVID-19

… city for Mount Vernon on September 10, 1793. He later visited the city before the official all clear on November 14, but did not reoccupy the … other business carried out virtually over Zoom. The theater company, Gemini CollisionWorks, gathers most of its 22 …