Politics & Current Affairs — April 25, 2011

The Arab Spring & Obama

Leading from behind. Is that the best policy for the U.S. in a world in which its power is waning? America must act more humbly, maybe, but is it stuck again in the Middle East?

bigthinkeditor

What’s the Latest Development?

Obama’s reluctance to articulate a grand doctrine has off-sided both realists and idealists. “On issues like whether to intervene in Libya there’s really not a compromise and consensus,” says one international affairs expert. “You can’t be a little bit realist and a little bit democratic when deciding whether or not to stop a massacre.”

What’s the Big Idea?

Obama says you get into trouble when you “apply blanket policies on the complexities of the current world situation”. Nevertheless, he may be moving toward something of a doctrine. One of his advisers described the President’s actions in Libya as “leading from behind.” Not a campaign-winning slogan but an apt description of the balance Obama seems to be finding in a world in which the relative power of the U.S. is declining and in which it is reviled in many parts.

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The great free will debate featuring Michio Kaku and Steven Pinker

Who — or what — really controls your mind?

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The largest accidental explosion of all time

More than a century ago, Halifax suffered an accidental blast one-fifth the size of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

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with

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