Law

Healing Rwanda

Can an international court deliver justice?

Exporting Democracy

The UN and the rebuilding of Kosova.

The New Humanitarianism

How military intervention became the norm.

Dominance and Its Dilemmas

The Bush administration’s imperial grand strategy.

The Iraqi Shiites

On the history of America’s would-be allies.

Shock and Awe Meets Market Shock

The dangerous mix of economic and military goals in Iraq

Why We’re So Tough on Crime

The widening divide between America and Europe.

Transparent Citizens, Invisible Government

The double requirement of the Constitution—that people’s lives be private and government actions be public—is turned inside out by the Patriot Act.

Still Blaming the Victim

In Young, Gifted, and Black, Theresa Perry, Claude Steele, and Asa Hilliard III do not address the deep structural inequalities that are the chief causes of the achievement gap.

Brazil’s Hope

Can President Lula redeem democracy in Latin America?

Weapons of Mass Confusion

The new emphasis on WMDs has not been accompanied by any serious public discussion of the differences among such weapons.

A Warning from History

Don’t expect democracy in Iraq.

Waiting for War in Damascus

Syria has been opening up. A war will shut it down.

The Best Defense

The problem with Bush’s “preemptive” war doctrine.

The Politics of Rescue

Debating humanitarian intervention.

Civil Liberties after 9/11

We should resist trading off liberties for security for reasons of principle, pragmatism, and self-interest.

Citizenship in Emergency

Can democracy protect us against terrorism?

Victims for the Prosecution

A survivor of the embassy bombings on the limits of victim impact testimony.

Violence, Terror, and Politics as Usual

America’s “new war” reflects an epochal change in the nature of collective violence.

Fenced In

As Arafat declines and Israel’s grip tightens, the Middle East sinks into hopelessness.

Justice or Therapy?

Deabtes on how to heal from the Rwandan genocide. 

The Legacies of Collective Violence

The Rwandan genocide and the limits of law.

Policing Disorder

Can we reduce serious crime by punishing petty offenses?

Deadly Symbiosis

Rethinking race and imprisonment in twenty-first-century America.

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