Institutions, which are typically based on rational assumptions, are dams holding at bay the howling frenzies lurking in human souls. All institutions are fragile. Sometimes the dams break.

Russia’s internal pathologies are creating a zone of instability in its periphery that could easily spread to the rest of the world.

Europe’s far-Right has discovered that the road to electoral respectability involves rejecting anti-Semitism and embracing Israel.

A moral vision is important, but it helps greatly if you can appeal to hard interests as well as to conscience.

Europe’s failure to create a coherent civic identity for its citizens has left the door open for the continent’s various far-right parties. And they’re not hesitating to seize the opportunity.

What a difference a weekend makes: Angela Merkel’s open door policy towards migrants has had unanticipated consequences for Berlin, which has re-instituted passport controls on its border with Austria, temporarily suspending Schengen.

If you are doomed to lose whatever you do, you might as well let your freak flag fly.

Administration “uncertain” as to Russia’s intent.

Two continuities mark the life of the longest-reigning monarch in British history: one is the presence of accelerating, transformative change in every dimension of human life; the other is the smugness of establishments who assume that the important questions have been answered, and that nothing important will ever change.

The Russian President announced that Bashar al-Assad would consent to a coalition government with a “so-called healthy” opposition, while refusing to rule out further Russian involvement in the war there.