Department Index
Foreigners 2008:
Opinions about events beyond our borders.
If you'd like to sort this department listing by headline, author or date, please use the Slate search.
- Can Israel Win the Gaza War? It depends how you define success.
Dec. 30, 2008 - Speech and Debate The magnificent rhetorical legacy of the Founding Fathers.
Dec. 30, 2008 - What's Going On in Greece? Do riots in Athens portend demonstrations in Paris and Cincinnati?
Dec. 23, 2008 - Breach of Trust Bernard Madoff's massive fraud will cripple American capitalism.
Dec. 16, 2008 - Walesa's Mustache, the Dalai Lama's Smile, and Sarkozy's Je Ne Sais Quoi In praise of charismatic politicians.
Dec. 9, 2008 - Chaos in Canada What happens when an unelected royal official closes Parliament.
Dec. 5, 2008 - Yes, We Have No Monedas! Inside the world's most annoying economic crisis.
Dec. 3, 2008 - Moscow's Empire of Dust For all Russia's imperial ambitions, its thuggish political system is totally unattractive.
Dec. 2, 2008 - The Mumbai Terrorists' Other Target How they hoped to destabilize Pakistan.
Dec. 1, 2008 - Know Your Enemy Applying the lessons of 9/11 to Mumbai.
Nov. 28, 2008 - Can Hillary Clinton Succeed? Only if she can overcome a lot of problems.
Nov. 25, 2008 - Obama's Next Arab Headache What to do with Guantanamo's Yemeni detainees?
Nov. 25, 2008 - Still Waiting for Chinese Democracy How long can Beijing resist political liberalization?
Nov. 21, 2008 - War of Words The West must not be distracted by Russian—or Georgian—propaganda.
Nov. 20, 2008 - In Praise of Political Rock Stars The post-election Obama euphoria will fade soon enough, but let's enjoy it while it lasts.
Nov. 11, 2008 - The Obama Advantage How race was his ace in the hole.
Nov. 5, 2008 - Learning From Experience Afghanistan stabilized after 9/11. Let's get back to what was working.
Nov. 5, 2008 - The Surprising Absence of an October Surprise How did we get through the election without an al-Qaida attack?
Nov. 5, 2008 - Voter Beware Election Day myths you must resist.
Nov. 4, 2008 - Why I Can't Vote for John McCain I admire the man, but his party has been taken over by anti-intellectual extremists.
Oct. 28, 2008 - Why Do Terrorists Love To Strike Around Elections? And what can we expect in the coming weeks?
Oct. 22, 2008 - Bringing Down the House These days, it's terrifyingly easy to destabilize an entire nation.
Oct. 20, 2008 - In Name Alone North Korea may be off the terror blacklist, but little has changed.
Oct. 13, 2008 - Enough About Israel, Already How constant attention from the candidates hinders the Jewish state.
Oct. 8, 2008 - Heartland Government Washington is closer to small-town Main Street than Sarah Palin thinks.
Oct. 6, 2008 - A Temporary Thaw Belarus' president reaches out to the West, but can we trust him?
Oct. 1, 2008 - The Black President A 1926 Brazilian sci-fi novel predicts a U.S. election determined by race and gender.
Sept. 30, 2008 - Saving Jerusalem The city has almost as many mayoral candidates as it has problems to solve.
Sept. 24, 2008 - Fixing Failed Aid The chaos of foreign aid in Afghanistan.
Sept. 23, 2008 - Reasons To Be Gloomy Four things to worry about.
Sept. 18, 2008 - Of Course We Can Win in Afghanistan If we're willing to pay the price of victory.
Sept. 15, 2008 - What's the Matter With Canada? How the world's nicest country turned mean.
Sept. 12, 2008 - Let Us Now Praise 44-Year-Old Women Michelle Obama and Sarah Palin have more in common than you might think.
Sept. 3, 2008 - My Dinners With Misha In the summer of 2006, I was part of Mikheil Saakashvili's great and tragic fantasy of an independent, America-loving Georgia.
Sept. 2, 2008 - Bring on the Bitchy Brits Looking forward to the 2012 London Olympics.
Aug. 25, 2008 - What Would Biden's Middle East Policy Look Like? Joe Biden is an erratic pragmatist.
Aug. 25, 2008 - Breaking Away Looking for the next South Ossetia.
Aug. 21, 2008 - "The Russians Moved Because They Know You Are Weak" The last two weeks have been a disaster for U.S. foreign policy.
Aug. 20, 2008 - What Is Russia Afraid Of? The spread of freedom and the West standing up to it.
Aug. 18, 2008 - Big Love Why Americans swoon for the former Soviet Republic of Georgia.
Aug. 15, 2008 - The Dissident Within What a book about China's great famine says about the country's transformation.
Aug. 11, 2008 - Al-Qaida at 20 Is Osama Bin Laden's movement destined to fail?
Aug. 11, 2008 - World Inaction Russia invades Georgia while the West watches. How did it come to this?
Aug. 8, 2008 - Death of a Writer How Alexander Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago changed the world.
Aug. 4, 2008 - Israel's Political Vacuum The nation is looking for a leader and an agenda. It can't seem to find either.
Aug. 1, 2008 - "The Hour of Europe" Tolls Again But are European politicians up to the task?
July 29, 2008 - What Is the Arab World's Problem? Kenneth Pollack's grand strategy for the Middle East.
July 28, 2008 - A Textbook Case of Intolerance Changing the world one schoolbook at a time.
July 22, 2008 - Live Terrorists for Dead Bodies Why does Israel keep agreeing to prisoner exchanges?
July 15, 2008 - Why Does Obama Want To Campaign in Berlin? Why not? The next president is going to be preoccupied by foreign affairs.
July 14, 2008 - Citizen Athletes How did a guy who can't speak Polish end up scoring Poland's only goal of Euro 2008?
July 1, 2008 - Protecting the Oil Supply What if the Chinese were to apply the Carter Doctrine?
June 25, 2008 - Who's Africa's Worst Dictator? Hint: It's probably not Robert Mugabe.
June 24, 2008 - Nice Guys Finish Last Why do we expect presidential candidates to be kind?
June 24, 2008 - "Broke-on-Broke Violence" What the U.S. press got wrong about South Africa's xenophobic riots.
June 20, 2008 - Pity the Poor Eurocrats Pay no attention to the wailing from Brussels.
June 16, 2008 - Is the World Ready for a Black American President? Contrary to European newspaper reporting, racism is not unique to the United States.
June 10, 2008 - McCain, Obama, and American Power The next president's first foreign-policy task will be to overcome the Bush legacy.
June 3, 2008 - Food Fight Robert Mugabe's Roman holiday highlights the United Nations' ineffectiveness.
June 3, 2008 - What Statistics Don't Tell Us The bad news about the good news about terrorism.
May 30, 2008 - Will the International Community Abandon Lebanon? That's for the Lebanese people to decide.
May 28, 2008 - All Work and No Play Still Might Not Get Jack Into Harvard High-school seniors are more stressed out than ever—just like the rest of us.
May 27, 2008 - Leave Hitler Out of It The craze for injecting the Nazis into political debate must end.
May 20, 2008 - A Drastic Remedy The case for intervention in Burma.
May 13, 2008 - The World Without Us The United States can't afford to snub the 2010 World Expo.
May 12, 2008 - What Does It Mean To Be "Pro-Israel"? The election, and the creation of a new dovish Jewish lobby group, brings the question to the fore.
May 7, 2008 - What's Going on in Abkhazia? The Russians are meddling in Georgia, and America can't do much about it.
May 5, 2008 - Jimmy Carter's Magic Words Should we talk to our enemies?
April 29, 2008 - Boris vs. Ken London's postmodern mayoral election.
April 29, 2008 - A Fading Signal Radio Free Europe still exists—and it's more important than ever.
April 22, 2008 - Olympic Flame Out China learns the price of a few weeks of global attention.
April 15, 2008 - Passing on the Torch Why are world leaders boycotting the Beijing opening ceremony?
April 11, 2008 - Disappointing the World Does international enthusiasm for Barack Obama hurt him?
April 9, 2008 - A Wrinkle in the Fabric of Society In Turkey, head scarves are potent political symbols.
April 1, 2008 - Boycott Beijing The Olympics are the perfect place for a protest.
March 25, 2008 - Live From Lhasa Shaky cell-phone videos from Tibet foretell doom for the Chinese empire.
March 18, 2008 - True-to-Life Stories Have political autobiographies made us more susceptible to fake memoirs?
March 11, 2008 - Setting Boundaries Can Colombia cross into Ecuador in hot pursuit of rebels?
March 5, 2008 - Putin's Potemkin Democracy Why does Russia bother to hold elections?
March 3, 2008 - Whose Jerusalem Is It, Anyway? Should diaspora Jews have a say in the political negotiations about Jerusalem?
Feb. 28, 2008 - Musharraf Powerless, Islamists Defeated What happened in the Pakistani elections?
Feb. 19, 2008 - A Death in Damascus After the assassination of Imad Mughniyah, Hezbollah finds itself squeezed between Syria and Iran.
Feb. 19, 2008 - Stir It Up Kosovo is a textbook example of the law of unintended consequences.
Feb. 19, 2008 - The End of Pax Americana? We're seeing the Palestinianization of Sinai and the Lebanonization of Egypt.
Feb. 14, 2008 - The Problem Nobody Wants There's only one winner in Gaza: Hamas.
Feb. 13, 2008 - One Nation Under Multiple Gods The British tabloids are right to bash the archbishop of Canterbury.
Feb. 12, 2008 - Sarkozy Weds, Plunges in Polls The French president's whirlwind romance reminds voters of his political recklessness.
Feb. 5, 2008 - Did a Rainstorm Save Lebanon? The real story behind the street battles in Beirut.
Feb. 1, 2008 - The Lessons of Darfur The campaign has achieved all its goals—but one.
Jan. 29, 2008 - Where Did All Those Gorgeous Russians Come From? The same place as the unglamorous assembly-line workers.
Jan. 28, 2008 - Kenya's Problems Aren't Uniquely African It's not just "tribal enmity plus poverty equals violence."
Jan. 22, 2008 - The Nano Challenge What happens when the green movement crashes into the anti-poverty crusade?
Jan. 15, 2008 - Black Is Electable Barack Obama's skin color is an enormous advantage in the 2008 race.
Jan. 8, 2008 - The Lessons of Benazir Bhutto Crafting a better Pakistan policy by studying her achievements.
Jan. 7, 2008 - Cruel To Be Kind Why Washington should not reach out to Muslim moderates.
Jan. 3, 2008 - Home and Away Benazir Bhutto was admired by the West but despised by many of her compatriots.
Jan. 1, 2008










