The US response to 9/11 included a declaration that America would destroy its enemies. The effort took decades, and thousands of lives on both sides, and never really succeeded.
A former executive director of the National Governors Association explains what it is about certain governors that makes them less suited for the presidency.
The former Italian prime minister died on June 12, 2023, at the age of 86. Throughout his terms in office he cultivated closer ties with the US – with mixed results.
The beginnings of Iraq’s sectarian civil war, the failures of its US-built political system, and the struggle for civilians attempting to survive chaos and violence are here in these 2004 interviews.
The Bush administration invaded Iraq with plans for it to become a democracy. But according to some social science measures, the country isn’t any more democratic than it was before 2003.
The US PEPFAR initiative has brought HIV medication to millions of people globally. Behind this progress are the activists that pressured politicians and companies to put patients over patents.
Susan H. Kamei, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
In the wake of 9/11, some called for rounding up whole groups of people viewed as potential threats to the nation. But Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta knew the U.S. had done that before.
People can die when the federal government doesn’t work well with state and local governments – the COVID-19 crisis showed that. But the Biden administration has signaled an openness to collaboration.
The sketchy history of international efforts to control bioweapons suggests that nations will resist cooperative monitoring of gene hacking for medical research.
Biden’s relationship with his father contrasts with perhaps every president in the last four decades, who either had absent or distant fathers or abusive or alcoholic fathers or stepfathers.
Lisa Hajjar, University of California, Santa Barbara
The release of a new movie calls public attention to the US government’s treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, and what the detainees’ future might be.
The vice president may be second in line for the most powerful job in the nation, but there isn’t necessarily a lot to do besides wait – unless the president wants another adviser.
A president may transfer power to the vice president if they are no longer capable of carrying out their official role. But there are many unanswered questions about this rarely used process.
A former lawyer for the US House of Representatives explains the constitutional and historical limits barring Congress from checking the president’s clemency powers.
When the electoral process was helped along by practices that either were or appeared to be underhanded, the resulting wounds took a long time to heal – and may not ever have healed.