Guest Thinkers

Essentially, Saudi Arabia has to make a choice: is it worse to have chaos and civil war in Yemen or to have yet another regime fall in the Middle East with all potential implications for Bahrain and at home?

Last month at the meetings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a panel titled “Communicating Diversity in Science: Implications for Climate Change Denial” explored the role that […]

In the fourth event of the Science in Society Film and Lecture Series at American University, on Monday, March 28 we will be hosting two leading researchers from the National […]

It definitely hasn’t been quiet geologically around the planet, but news about volcanism seems to be in a bit of a lull right now. Most of what I’ve run across […]

When the universe came into being a mere 13.75 billion years ago, its origin may have been so weird, due to expanding dimensions, that we can’t even imagine what it would have been like.

In the next two decades, nearly two-thirds of humanity will be living in cities. So how will urban centers across the world manage the increasing pressure being put on their water resources?

The Grant Hill Jalen Rose debacle captivated black bloggers all last week. I was out of town at the time the Fab Five special produced by Jalen Rose aired on […]

“Nobody has ever painted eyes, women’s eyes particularly, so well as Lawrence,” Romantic painter Eugene Delacroix wrote after visiting British painter Thomas Lawrence in 1825 and finding himself bowled over […]

The U.S has begun an undeclared war in Libya, and it’s not clear what exactly it hopes to achieve by its actions.

That’s what this study shows.  Actually, the study is pretty modest–not to mention Finnish.  But the expert doesn’t hesitate to draw global implications from it. One conclusion:  The Left is more […]

HIV is four times more prevalent among young girls in Kenya than among boys of the same age because they are having sexual relationships with much older men.

What could the future of search and information distribution look like? Here are two very exciting possibilities.

What does it mean for our digital future when the Internet has become a giant game where the goal is to acquire as many fans and followers as quickly as possible, across as many social platforms as possible? 

I almost let it slip by, but Jon Frimann reminded me that this week marks the one-year anniversary of the start of what came to be the biggest volcanic event […]

The most sensible outcome, and one avoiding the Libyan leader being killed by American and European led forces, would be to somehow organise his arrest by forces loyal to the Arab League. 

Thinking about revolutions is inextricable from thinking about grief. We cannot know how many lives will be lost, but we know that those left behind will engage in personal and […]

Many thanks to the American Prospect for giving me the opportunity to guest blog at TAPPED last week. Thanks also to my friends, family, colleagues, and loyal readers who helped […]

I used to think, when I heard the words “foreign policy expert”, that it really meant something, the way the phrase “nuclear power expert” connotes the image of someone who […]

As a companion piece to Waq al-waq’s ever expanding ever more popular post on the list of resignations in Yemen (many of these guys are apparently on hold with al-Jazeera […]

At the AAAS meetings last month, a panel focused on the relationship between journalists and climate scientists provoked a testy exchange.  As Bud Ward at the Yale Forum on Climate […]

At the end of my post on Saturday, I mentioned what I saw at the beginning moves of a potential break between Salih’s immediate family and the rest of his […]

In today’s economic order the U.S. needs strong allies. Cultivating relationships in Latin America is essential if Washington wants to continue to exercise leadership in the region.

As political upheaval spreads across North Africa and into the Persian Gulf, 2011 may turn out to be as momentous as 1971, the year when the nature of the region’s petro-states first took shape.

Egyptians voted in overwhelming numbers to approve a set of constitutional amendments, setting the stage for Egypt’s first truly contested parliamentary and presidential elections in decades.

Air power will be enough to escalate this war but not enough to win it. Although prohibited for now by the Security Council, “boots on the ground” will be required to remove Qaddafi.

The recent disasters to befall Japan, to be sure, are tragic, but these losses should not result in more than a small decline in the per capita standard of living of the Japanese people.

Before we get into the news about all the activity in Indonesia, I did want to point out a couple of articles about the connection between earthquakes and volcanoes. After […]

So you may have noticed I haven’t posted on any movies lately. That’s because I haven’t seen any I liked or hated enough to talk about.  I did just see […]

Jason Torpy argues in the American Humanist Association e-zine that “vegan priorities are humanist priorities.” His argument is a bait-and-switch–he sets you up for brie and leaves you with textured […]

Just how much of an impact will shocks like rising oil and food prices and the devastation in Japan have on America’s strengthening but still vulnerable economy?