Section: The Atlantic (USA)
The Life and Times of Prague’s John Lennon Wall
Earlier this week, Praguers awoke to find that the John Lennon Wall, one of the city’s better known symbols of artistic resistance against the former Communist regime, had been “reimagined.” Or, as the Prague Post put it, the wall had been “vandalized.” APRiffing on the John Lennon and Yoko One peace message,...
America Doesn’t Need to Lead the Free World
Even before I returned home from serving as an infantryman in the U.S. Army, which included two combat tours in Iraq between 2006 and 2009, I was searching for ways to contextualize my experience. My questions weren’t ponderous or existential; they were pointed and, I believed, answerable. One was why units like mine were assuming...
A Withering Critique of Obama’s National Security Council
If George W. Bush’s foreign policy was a testament to the perils of overreaction, Barack Obama’s foreign policy is becoming, to many experts, a testament to the dangers of underreaction. On the matter of Syria, in particular, fear of renewed U.S. involvement in the problems of dysfunctional Arab countries (a legitimate fear, of...
A Trio of Space Explorers Safely Return Home
Warmly wrapped in thermal blankets and with his hand raised toward the sky, Russian cosmonaut Maxim Suraev flashed a V for “victory” after successfully landing onto frost-covered Kazakhstani soil after a three-and-a-half-hour journey from the International Space Station. Suraev was the first of three space explorers from Expedition-40 and 41 to...
Life as a Fake Beauty Queen in Small-Town China
It was November 2011, and I was in a fluorescent-lit hotel room in the Chinese city of Ordos, on the outskirts of Inner Mongolia. Next to me, my 17-year-old Brazilian roommate, Anna, was tucking into bed. I set our alarm for 6 a.m., when singing, dancing, and talent contests awaited us. All would be broadcast on China Central Television. “Open...
The Hidden Author of Putinism
“I am the author, or one of the authors, of the new Russian system,” Vladislav Surkov told us by way of introduction. On this spring day in 2013, he was wearing a white shirt and a leather jacket that was part Joy Division and part 1930s commissar. “My portfolio at the Kremlin and in government has included ideology, media, political parties,...
Has Russia Invaded Ukraine Again?
Ukraine’s government say a new convoy of Russian tanks and trucks—some 60 vehicles in all—crossed over the border between the two countries on Thursday, raising fears of a new wave of fighting in the eastern regions of the country. The incursion, which has not been independently confirmed by journalists in the area, is just the latest sign...
Is a Global System the Future of Graduate Education?
When John Shattuck first stepped out of the esteemed halls of Yale Law in 1970, even his wildest expectations could not have predicted the next four decades of his career. Whether it’s been Watergate, the Bosnian war or the Rwandan Genocide, he’s made a career out of protecting civil rights both locally and abroad. Never one for...
$3 Gas Isn’t Necessarily Good for America
It may be hard to imagine, but other things have been going on in the world besides the election. One is the striking decline in oil prices, from a long period of well over $100 a barrel to a point now, by some indices, of under $80 a barrel. Of course, Americans across the country are seeing it in plummeting gas prices—now in some places under...
The Lost America of Team America
To remember what the world felt like to a lot of people in the fall of 2004, look no further than the opening scene of Team America: World Police, the South Park-driven marionette action spoof/international affairs crash course/musical that was released during one of the most divisive election seasons ever. Islamic terrorists are just about to...
