I am approaching my impending graduation with the sort of aloofness that is probably more appropriate for an impending visit to the DMV. Because I am slated to begin law school this fall, my mind is already wrapped up in basic practical issues related to this important transition in my life and also in figuring…
Immigration reform has been in the news recently, principally in relation to an emerging consensus in Congress over a comprehensive overhaul that will touch everything from the contentious issue of border security to expanding the number of visas for highly skilled workers in technical fields. Now, although the point of this overhaul is to facilitate…
On Monday, April 8, we woke up to the sad news that Margaret Thatcher, the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom whose epoch changing tenure from 1979 to 1990 radically transformed her country on the basis free-market principles and reforms, died from a stroke in London at age 87. Although it is nearly 23…
This week, President Obama traveled to Israel for the first time since he assumed office in 2009. He met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—who only recently finally succeeded in organizing a shaky post-election coalition government—and the chairman of the Palestinian National Authority, Mahmoud Abbas. Obama articulated in measured terms various long-standing American positions on issues…
I am the son of Polish immigrants and have had the joy of traveling to Poland 19 separate times during the first 22 years of my life. These numerous visits—many of them spanning several months at a time—have been foundational to my dual identity as a Polish European and an American, firmly planting my feet…
Pope Benedict XVI shocked the world when he announced during a meeting of cardinals in the Vatican that he intended to abdicate the papacy. This was a stunning development because there has been no papal abdication in about seven centuries and also because there had been no indication in the public arena beforehand that the…
This past week, with the very generous assistance of the political science and global studies departments, I was very fortunate to attend the 54th Academy Assembly of the U.S. Air Force in Colorado Springs. Concordia is one of a small number of institutions of higher learning that are invited to send a delegate or two…
One of the biggest and potentially most dangerous misconceptions prevalent among policy circles, pundit rounds and election campaigns today is that the United States should do everything in its power to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. The laundry list of calamities that would supposedly occur in the event Iran acquired nuclear weapons is quite…
It should be obvious to anyone who follows the news even cursorily that the biggest issue in Washington right now is the matter of the upcoming “fiscal cliff.” If this seems like an overly dramatic expression, it’s because the issue itself is extraordinarily dramatic and, if allowed to transpire, threatens to unleash a host of…
These are perilous times for national constitutions in the European Union. The present political order is slowly moving in a direction characterized by potent separatism that threatens to break up several states, some of them longstanding players on the international scene. If the devolved government of Scotland gets its way in a referendum planned for…