Politics & Current Affairs

Al-Shabaab, a brutal Somalian insurgency, has attacked inside Uganda. How much should this international Islamic terrorism concern the U.S. and how can, or should, the U.S. respond?

Despite widespread fears of a “double dip” recession, Wall Street is hiring again in droves, a sign that the financial industry anticipates a strong economic recovery. According to The New […]

Feminist attorney Gloria Allred is no stranger to high-profile cases—she’s best known for representing women and families in big-money lawsuits against the likes of Tiger Woods, Aaron Spelling, O.J. Simpson, […]

The promotion of math and science in Muslim countries would serve American interests better than starting wars, says an Obama science advisor and Nobel Laureate Ahmed Zewail.

The democratic ideal of a well informed public fit to govern itself is not in line with recent behavioral research which finds people are more bullheaded when facts contradict their beliefs.

Church and State both took tentative strides towards granting gays and lesbians greater rights yesterday. In Massachusetts a federal judge overturned the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which bars the […]

It’s a bit of an overstatement to say that Americans don’t care at all about what’s happening outside of our borders, but Jim Hoge, the longtime editor of Foreign Affairs […]

“We’ve plenty to protest about in the US, but on the streets there is no dissent. Why is our liberal mood so paralytic?” Clancy Sigel blames a host of culprits, including the Internet.

“How does a defunct and discredited diplomatic process continue to masquerade as a success despite its utter failures?” An Al Jazeera analyst writes about the Middle East “peace process”.

Dual use technologies make it especially difficult for countries to negotiate agreements over the weaponization of space. The New Scientists asks what positive steps can be taken.

“Hypocrisy is always a double edged sword; but in the case of anti-colonial struggles both sides of the blade cut the weaker party more deeply,” says history professor Mark LeVine.

Ever since I first started going to Russia in early 1956, I have been impressed by the fact that the Russian people, generally speaking, admire the United States.  For decades,even […]

Penn and Teller are not like other famous duos, says Penn Jillette, the larger and more talkative of the two magicians. Lennon and McCartney, Martin and Lewis, Jagger and Richards—these relationships were […]

Historically a bedrock of U.S. foreign policy, Israel is losing support from outside and inside the U.S. because of its recent aggressiveness, says Jonathan Freedland for The Guardian.

Ten people were arrested in the suburbs of New York, Boston, and northern Virginia last week, accused of being part of an elaborate Russian spy ring. According to the New […]

Jeffrey Wasserstrom gives five reasons why we need not fear the rise of China. Among them: “Some of the really scary things about China have U.S. parallels,” such as environmental disregard, he says.

“Those who haven’t abandoned Juárez may be watching the death of it, both day and night.” Sarah Hill gives a tragic account of the Mexican city gone from boom to bust to nearly dust.

“What exactly is the Iranian threat?” asks Noam Chomsky in his latest article. The linguist turned political activist finds glaring hypocrisies in U.S. foreign policy toward the Middle East.

Gary Becker and Richard Posner at the University of Chicago weigh in on the Gulf oil leak. Did BP make a good-faith estimate of the risk entailed by deep-water drilling or was it negligent?

Robert Grenier, a former CIA station chief in Pakistan, can envision only breakdown in Afghanistan: Congress has divergent goals and counter-insurgency tactics are insufficient.

The New Statesman interviews the Kenyan native and friend of Western conservatives who warns that Islam gets a free pass while carrying a dangerous blend of oppressive ideas.

China’s resource hungry economy is importing more and more from the Americas. How will its entrance into a region historically dominated by the U.S. affect Latin and South America?

Naomi Wolf likes shopping for clothes too, but she knows brutal labor conditions lurk behind each inexpensive blouse. She calls on Western women to be more aware of cheap fashion’s true cost.

Soccer’s peculiar resemblances to socialism is why America has yet to really succeed at the sport, says The Guardian’s American-in-Residence, Michael Tomansky.

Martha Nussbaum says that when the President and politicians publicly admire the education systems of China and Singapore, they support learning systems at odds with an open society.

Legal scholar Laurence Tribe told Big Think today that he found Elena Kagan’s performance in her Supreme Court confirmation hearings to be “masterful in every respect.” Kagan, who was previously the […]

Having now closed out the first six months of the year, it seems like a good time to look back on Big Think’s 10 Most Popular Videos of the First […]

Despite the Cold War mystique surrounding alleged Russian spies living within the U.S. under “deep cover”, Al Jazeera reports that spying is an eternal art, valuable to a nation no matter the epoch.

“Those who perpetrate wars of aggression invariably invent moral justifications to allow themselves and the citizens of the aggressor state to feel good and noble about themselves,” says Glen Greenwald.