PATRICK LAWRENCE: Al-Qaeda Goes to Washington
Al–Sharaa’s White House visit is a reminder of Washington’s longstanding abhorrence of democratic processes and anyone — beyond the perimeter of the West and sometimes within it — who stands for them. I never thought I would see the day, but the…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: Blinded to Syria
I do not know anyone who was not shocked by the lightning speed with which Damascus fell to expensively armed jihadist militias last weekend. I know very few people who do not understand that another domino has just fallen in the…
The US Press, Spooks & the Church Committee
Nineteen fifty-three was a peculiar year for The Washington Post to question the C.I.A.’s drift into activist intrigues, writes Patrick Lawrence in this excerpt from his forthcoming book, Journalists and Their Shadows. On Jan. 9, 1953, The Washington Post published an editorial we can read all…
Asian Unrest: An Ominous Sign for the Global Economy
The specter of social unrest is haunting the high-growth economies of Asia. In one nation after another, rising expectations are being dashed as economic conditions deteriorate. In effect, Asia’s nascent middle class is getting its first taste of middle-class insecurity…
A Kiss in Java
INDONESIAN DESTINIES. By Theodore Friend. Belknap/Harvard. 628 pp. $35. INDONESIA: Peoples and Histories. By Jean Gelman Taylor. Yale. 420 pp. $39.50. In a broad square not far from the center of Jakarta, a large obelisk of concrete soars into the sky….
What does it mean to be modern? Indonesia’s reformasi
How is a nation born? Otto von Bismarck, with his terrifying face, his huge body, and his heavy clothes, would answer “Through blood and iron.” … However, it is also essential to hold on to myths and even dreams—no matter…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: Trump’s War on the Future Has a Past
The Trump-McMahon education edict: You will cooperate as we destroy the tradition of intellectual exploration that has endured for a thousand years — or we will starve you. Last autumn, well into the Trump regime’s full-frontal attacks on American universities…